ROCKLAND, Maine — In addition to selling off a Rockland man’s waterfront home in Owls Head for less than half its value, the state caused significant damage to his other house in Rockland, according to the latest legal filings in a lengthy, complicated legal battle.
The extent of the state’s mismanagement of the man’s holdings was greater than originally believed, according to the lawsuit, which indicates that the Maine Department of Health and Human Services failed to heat the man’s Rockland home during the winter, which led to broken pipes that significantly damaged one of his final assets.
The department also previously had been accused of euthanizing William Dean’s cat and of selling off Dean’s belongings without an inventory and for well below their values.
A hearing is scheduled for next week on whether a settlement on some of the claims in the nearly 1½ -year-old federal court case will be approved.
After Dean was hospitalized in 2012 at the state-run Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center in Bangor, DHHS was appointed conservator by a probate judge to oversee Dean’s finances. At the time, the agency argued that it needed to sell some of Dean’s assets to pay upcoming property tax bills.
Dean’s sister Claire Dean Perry filed a lawsuit in May 2013 against the state, Key Bank and her brother. In her lawsuit, she claimed that her brother drained a trust account their parents had established for both of them. Key Bank was named in the suit because it oversaw the trust account and the state was named because it was the conservator.
A second lawsuit was filed in February by Pamela Vose, Dean’s cousin, to void the sale of the Owls Head waterfront property. That lawsuit is being heard in the Business and Consumer Court in Portland and remains in progress.
Vose was appointed conservator in August 2013 after the state withdrew from the position after having sold the Owls Head home and Dean’s belongings from the Rockland home.
Perry, Dean and Key Bank reached a tentative agreement in July 2014 to settle the first lawsuit. The settlement calls for the sister to be paid $71,525 from a trust account created from the sale of the Owls Head property. The court documents do not contain any terms of the deal with the bank.
The state is challenging the settlement, saying last month it would not be in the best interest of Dean, since it would leave him with too little money to live. He has since been released from the psychiatric facility in Bangor and now lives in a group home in Camden.
Vose, however, said the settlement is in the best interest of Dean.
“As a direct result of the mismanagement of Bill’s estate by his conservator/guardian (DHHS), Bill is now nearly destitute,” Vose states in an affidavit filed July 25. She said that with the settlement, he can access the remainder of the trust money minus what is paid his sister.
To highlight the mismanagement, Vose references the sale of Dean’s property on Castlewood Lane in Owls Head by DHHS to James Peter Taylor in January 2013 for $205,000, even though the town had the property assessed for $476,840. The property consisted of 1 acre with 100 feet of frontage and a two-story, 1,000-square-foot cottage.
Vose also pointed out that DHHS hired an auction company to sell off belongings in the Rockland house without having a contract and without taking an inventory. Earlier court documents stated that the estate included many valuable items such as musical instruments and a Cadillac that Dean cherished. His cat Caterpillar was euthanized.
The July affidavit also revealed that Dean’s house in Rockland was left unheated during the 2012-2013 winter while the state was Dean’s conservator. The water was not turned off nor the pipes drained, so pipes froze, burst and flooded the residence with thousands of gallons of water. Since the house on Broadway was closed up, a serious mold problem resulted.
The state put the property — a two-story, 2,000-square-foot colonial house — up for sale for $69,900. A sale was not completed, however, before DHHS was replaced as conservator by Vose.
Vose argues in the paperwork filed in probate court that the settlement with Key Bank and between the Dean siblings is fair, reasonable and mutually beneficial.
DHHS, however, argues that the settlement is not in the best interest of Dean. The state argues that the settlement would be a gift to Dean’s sister and would leave inadequate money for Dean to live.
The Penobscot County Probate Court has scheduled a hearing to approve the settlement on Sept. 16. If approved, the lawsuit by Claire Dean Perry would be dismissed. That case is now pending in U.S. District Court in Portland.
Attorney David Jenny, who represents Dean in the probate case and Vose in the lawsuit to overturn the sale of the Owls Head home, had no comment. Dean Perry’s attorney Cynthia Dill did not immediately respond to a request for comment left Monday morning. (Disclosure: Dill is a paid columnist for the Bangor Daily News.)
Assistant Maine Attorney General Katherine Greason said she could not comment on a pending case.