A class action lawsuit has been filed in Jasper County Circuit Court seeking the removal of Jasper County Public Administrator Rita Hunter as conservator for approximately 450-500 individuals.
The suit was filed Wednesday afternoon by attorney R. Lynn Myers of Springfield, representing Emma France, Guy Sesler and Treba Benson. The defendants named in the suit are Hunter and Charlene Kelly, deputy public administrator of Jasper County.
The suit contends that Hunter has charged her clients an excessive amount above her annual. Myers said that the fees set by the public administrator’s office have increased about 400 percent.
Myers also contends that state law allows public administrators to be paid either a salary or by fees, but not both.
“Once you decide, you can’t change,” said Myers. “Mrs. Hunter receives a salary and charges fees.”
Myers said the suit does not request the removal of Mrs. Hunter as guardian, but only as conservator.
According to the lawsuit, Rita Hunter and her deputy Charlene Kelly have failed in their fiduciary duties to the wards as a class in that:
“a. Defendant Rita Hunter has charged and received from the wards’ estates more than the reasonable compensation allowed under the law for personal representatives.
“b. That Defendant Rita Hunter charged her wards’ estates between 300 percent and 1,000 percent of the county’s costs for salaries.
“c. That the State of Missouri has set the reasonable compensation for Defendant Rita Hunter as approximately $59,000.
“d. That the Defendant Rita Hunter has charged the wards’ estates not based upon the actual time spent, but an arbitrary time amount.
“e. That the Defendant Rita Hunter and her Deputies have failed to take and maintain inventories of personal property of the wards.
“f. That the Defendant Rita Hunter and her Deputies have failed to pay the cost of care for her wards even at a time when there were monies in their name.
“g. That the Defendant Rita Hunter has failed to maintain, rent, or sell the real property of her wards, and has allowed some of the real property to be taken by the lenders.
“h. That the Defendant Rita Hunter has paid her Deputy Charlene Kelly directly from the wards’ estates to prepare tax returns for the wards, a service for which Defendant Charlene Kelly is already paid a salary for and which is already the duty of the Public Administrator acting as Conservator for the wards.”
In addition to asking that Hunter be removed as conservator from all the estates and a new conservator be appointed by the court, the suit also is asking the court to award the plaintiffs damages in a fair and reasonable amount. It also is seeking punitive damages against the defendants in the amount which “will deter them and others from like conduct.”
Hunter this morning said the timing of the lawsuit is “pretty well orchestrated. I don’t believe it is coincidence that this was filed so close to the election.
Hunter calls the suit frivolous in that every public administrator charges fees.
“What he (Myers) is doing is trying to be the judge and jury,” said Hunter. “It is up to the courts whether or not to approve the fees. I cannot do anything except to submit them to the court. If the court thought I was doing something wrong, would they be approving my fees for three years?”
Hunter said she is not paid by fees but just by her salary.
“The fees are used for the upkeep of the office,” he said. “They take care of the employees, wages, equipment, so forth. I have never received any fees for my own personal gain. I made this a salary position for that reason. Again, I have never accepted any fees for my personal gain, I won’t do that and I can’t do that and I have no interest in doing that.
“All the fees that he (Myers) is talking about have been OK’d by the court,” said Hunter.
“These have been court-approved fees and have been from the very beginning.”
