Legal Question in Elder Law in California

My friend, 57 yrs. old, with dementia, initiated a legal document of a revocation of a POA. A notary, with a witness present, explained the revocation, what it does and verified that WAS what the person wanted and witnessed/verified the signature using my friend's driver's license as identification. .

The revocation was sent certified mail in April 2010, to multiple persons (doctor, financial planner, etc.) and was refused by the POA. The POA states that the revocation is not valid because the person (her mother) has dementia, and has ignored the revocation and continues to make decisions, withhold financial information and mail and putting my friend, her mother, in an assisted living facility (against her will), far away so it is difficult for friends to visit....thus isolating her.

Questions:

Is it legal for the POA to continue to ignore the revocation of POA?

Must the POA go to court to have the revocation overturned?

If so, doesn't the person revoking the POA get a notification of same?


Asked on 9/14/10, 9:21 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

You have a very legally complicated situation and even with all the facts you have provided, you have not provided enough to give a valid answer. Having dementia is not automatically the same as lacking mental capacity to act. So how advance the dementia was at the time the POA was granted (or if it was granted before the onset of dementia), how advanced it was at the time of the attempted revocation, and the terms of the POA (particularly was it "durable") are all crucial to answering your question. You really need to sit down with an attorney and go over everything to do with this situation to get any kind of reliable answers.

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Answered on 9/21/10, 1:08 pm


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