Can't be in 2 places at once

Yesterday I wanted to attend the motions hearing in the Timothy Smith case at 9:00AM and the status hearing in the probates of Jack and Audrey Feldkamp at 9:30AM. It surely is hard to be in two courtrooms at the same time.

About 9:20AM Judge Prather had gone through the cases that were ready, and she asked if anyone else was ready. (Silence...) So she called a recess and vanished from her courtroom. Looking back, I should have guessed it would be a while, and I should have headed downstairs to Judge Chmiel's courtroom for the next act in the saga of the Feldkamp probates.

Jack Feldkamp and Audrey Feldkamp died on June 7 in McHenry County outside Marengo. Doran Bloom also died that night.

Probates were opened, and the estates are now on the fourth executor (the third successor executor). Scott Feldkamp, son of Jack and Audrey, was named in the Wills and served as the first executor. Jackie Feldkamp, Scott's sister, asked the Probate Court to remove him in 2012, and Judge Chmiel agreed, appointing Jackie as the first successor executor. Scott didn't show up in court, and the estates were not represented by an attorney, but Attorney Duane Slayton showed up and filed a motion to vacate Jackie's appointment and have Scott restored.

The problem, as noted by Judge Chmiel at the court date on Slayton's motion, was that Attorney Slayton had not filed any Appearance. He didn't legally represent Scott as Executor when he filed the motion. He only filed his Appearance when he showed up to argue the motion, and Judge Chmiel said more than once that he "had a problem" with that. Of course, he did. Except he didn't push it.

Judge Chmiel refused to re-appoint Scott Feldkamp. Instead, he appointed Attorney Howard Rigsby, as second successor executor. That didn't last long and in September Judge Chmiel appointed Attorney Carl Gilmore as third successor executor.

I missed yesterday's hearing, but court records indicate that the next status-check is November 18. That's six months away. This indicates to me that Judge Chmiel believes there is still considerable work to be done regarding closing the estates.

Judge Chmiel should be asking the executor to provide a list of assets in both estates as of June 8, 2011. And then he should demand answers to questions about what happened to the assets. Did many of the assets disappear between June 8, 2011 and July 20, 2012, when the first executor was removed. An executor has a fiduciary duty to preserve and account for assets; he is not supposed to just spend them willy-nilly without record-keeping. Are there any records?

IDOT may once again be interested in a roundabout for the corner of U.S. 20 and Harmony Road, where Harmony Real Estate was located. The building is still there, and it's in the estate. If the State of Illinois pays $250,-500,000 for that corner, Judge Chmiel ought to get that money under his control fast.