A woman with multiple sclerosis says she was forced to wait more than seven years for a $1 million inheritance payment that never materialized, after it was allegedly mishandled by a woman who was formerly employed by her blood family. blue.
Meanwhile, wheelchair-bound New Yorker Meryn Klabouch, 74, says she has been living on a $1 million sum left to her by her father in 2015, which has since dwindled as she continues to shell out tens of thousands dollars a month in medical costs. .
Court documents show that Klabouch, a quadriplegic, was owed another payment to the tune of more than $2 million when her aunt, a former CEO of prominent Manhattan insurance company Mutual of America, died the next year in 2016.
Following her death, the late executive left money to a dozen surviving relatives, including Klabouch, which, seven years later, none have received.
Klabouch claims this due to the fact that his aunt’s former home health aide, identified in Manhattan Probate Court documents as Janina Lewandowska, was named executor of her estate of more than $2 million, but ultimately managed bad funds.
Mutual of America Insurance Co. CEO Dolores Morrissey (seen here) died in February 2016, leaving her disabled niece $1 million in cash and half of her estate, valued at about $2 million. A court filing alleges the estate was mishandled by Morrissey’s former health aide
“If Meryn does not receive an estate distribution, she will end up dead, with no money to pay for her medication, carers, therapists and doctor,” her lawyer wrote in court documents seen by DailyMail.com that exposed the dire situation. of the Klabouch situation.
“This is truly an emergency that we urge the court to address as there is so much money for Meryn’s care and the estate is wasted every day.”
The complaint adds that Klabouch’s late aunt, Mutual of America Insurance Co. CEO Dolores Morrissey, who died in February 2016, left the senior $1 million in cash as part of her will, as well as the half of his high-value estate.
That included not just cash and a slew of stock options, the filing further alleges, but also a one-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bathroom apartment overlooking Manhattan’s East River that Klabouch’s lawyers say languished on the market. for years before being sold last July.
The person responsible for the sale, Lewandowska, pawned the house for $825,000, even though similar co-ops in the luxury building cost more than $2 million, and the exact unit was previously valued at $1 million, according to property records. .
After the sale, Klabouch’s attorneys said the senior, who spends between $20,000 and $30,000 on medication, caregivers and doctor visits, received only $80,000 of the more than $1 million he says he’s entitled to.
Classifying her situation as an emergency, Klabouch’s lawyers wrote that she will end up dead if she does not receive adequate compensation, after Lewandowska inexplicably told the court in December that only $161,000 of the more than $2 million estate remained.
Speaking to The New York Post on Thursday about the ongoing legal battle, Klabouch added that he has been desperately trying to find out what happened to his aunt’s money, including the sale of nearly $900,000 of her lifelong home, but fears the worse after learning that Lewandowska moved to Florida without the knowledge of the court.
The property included not only cash and a host of stock options, but also a 1-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom apartment overlooking Manhattan’s East River (seen here). The assistant, named executor of the will after the woman’s death, claims the cooperative played a role in delaying the sale of the apartment.
In addition to the alleged funds, the old man says the former assistant also took Morrissey’s cat Timmy, refusing to return heirloom jewelry he had received from his own mother, who was Morrisey’s sister.
Lawyers in the recent court filing further accused Lalandowska of deliberately prolonging her responsibilities as executor in the hope that Klabouch would pass away before she was forced to disburse funds, and since then, her aunt’s estate has been “wasted” every day.
“If Meryn does not receive an estate distribution, she will end up dead,” the filing read, adding that the older person “will not have money to pay for her medications, caregivers, therapists and doctor.”
“This is truly an emergency that we urge the court to address as there is so much money for Meryn’s care and the estate is wasted every day.”
Speaking to the Post from his own Upper East Side apartment, Klabouch added of his possible fate: “I’m going to be put in a nursing home.” They would probably kill me.
In the recent court filing, the major added of Lawandowska’s alleged scheme: “One can only guess that the reason she refuses to provide the information is that it will show a breach of her fiduciary duty.”
The filing further alleges that while Klabouch continues to plead with the court to expedite the payments, Lawandowska has repeatedly ignored court directives and refused to share relevant information about her finances.
The lawyers wrote of the former home worker’s possible motive: “I think the executor always thought my client would die, and [she]… would keep the money.
They add that the nearly eight-year judicial struggle has now become a matter of life and death.
“This is truly an emergency that we urge the court to address as there is so much money for Meryn’s care and the estate is wasted every day.”
Lewandowska has yet to be charged with any crime. She claims that the cooperative played a role in delaying the sale of the apartment. She declined to comment when questioned by the Post.