California ELA Member Wins $23 Million Jury Award in Elder Abuse Case

Joseph Girard

Los Angeles ElderLawAnswers member Joseph Girard, principal at The Law Offices of Joseph C. Girard, has obtained a $23 million jury verdict in an elder abuse case involving a contractor.

One of Mr. Girard’s clients was the trustee of a family trust that included a special needs trust for her 55-year-old autistic daughter. When the client died in 2009, her son, Timothy McGinty, who struggled with substance abuse and depression, became successor trustee.  Unbeknownst to Mr. Girard, Mr. McGinty entered into a contract with a contractor, Noam Bouzaglou, to upgrade the family home, which was owned by the trust. To pay for work on the house, most of which was not needed and never done, Mr. Bouzaglou enticed Mr. McGinty to deed the property over to him, agreeing to pay Mr. McGinty a portion of the profit on the sale of the property. When Mr. McGinty unexpectedly died, a cousin, the successor trustee, alerted Mr. Girard, who immediately stopped the sale by filing a lawsuit against Mr. Bouzaglou.

A Los Angeles jury gave back the house to the trust and awarded the trust $23 million in punitive damages against the contractor, finding that he acted with recklessness, oppression and malice toward the family. The jury also found that an attorney who acted in concert with the contractor was professionally  negligent and engaged in fraudulent conduct.

“We are gratified the jury agreed that this was an egregious breach in the defendants’ fiduciary responsibility toward our client,” Mr. Girard said in a press release.  “The defendant took advantage of a depressed man and his disabled sister, and fraudulently obtained their home through undue influence.  We know his mother would be tremendously relieved that her legacy was returned to the right hands.”

“This case is a prime example of how important trust administration is after a death," Mr. Girard added.  "When Mr. McGinty died, he had not yet effectuated the special needs trust that his mother had established for his sister’s lifetime of care.  Thankfully, the Court recognized the contractor’s misdeed and made the right decision in returning the home to the McGinty family.”

For more details on the case, click here, and see also Mr. Girard’s blog post on the verdict.