Michigan Laws 700.1205 – Discovery and remedies for fraud, embezzlement, conversion, or withholding of assets
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(1) The court may order a person to appear before the court and be examined upon the matter of a complaint that is filed with the court under oath by a fiduciary, beneficiary, creditor, or another interested person of a decedent‘s or ward‘s trust or estate alleging any of the following:
(a) The person is suspected of having, or has knowledge that another may have, concealed, embezzled, conveyed away, or disposed of the trustee‘s, decedent’s, or ward’s property.
Terms Used In Michigan Laws 700.1205
- Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
- Claim: includes , but is not limited to, in respect to a decedent's or protected individual's estate, a liability of the decedent or protected individual, whether arising in contract, tort, or otherwise, and a liability of the estate that arises at or after the decedent's death or after a conservator's appointment, including funeral and burial expenses and costs and expenses of administration. See Michigan Laws 700.1103
- Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Court: means the probate court or, when applicable, the family division of circuit court. See Michigan Laws 700.1103
- Decedent: A deceased person.
- Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
- Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
- Estate: includes the property of the decedent, trust, or other person whose affairs are subject to this act as the property is originally constituted and as it exists throughout administration. See Michigan Laws 700.1104
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
- Interrogatories: Written questions asked by one party of an opposing party, who must answer them in writing under oath; a discovery device in a lawsuit.
- Letters: includes , but is not limited to, letters testamentary, letters of guardianship, letters of administration, and letters of conservatorship. See Michigan Laws 700.1105
- Person: means an individual or an organization. See Michigan Laws 700.1106
- Personal representative: includes , but is not limited to, an executor, administrator, successor personal representative, and special personal representative, and any other person, other than a trustee of a trust subject to article VII, who performs substantially the same function under the law governing that person's status. See Michigan Laws 700.1106
- Proceeding: includes an application and a petition, and may be an action at law or a suit in equity. See Michigan Laws 700.1106
- Property: means anything that may be the subject of ownership, and includes both real and personal property or an interest in real or personal property. See Michigan Laws 700.1106
- Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
- Trust: includes , but is not limited to, an express trust, private or charitable, with additions to the trust, wherever and however created. See Michigan Laws 700.1107
- Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
- Trustee: includes an original, additional, or successor trustee, whether or not appointed or confirmed by the court. See Michigan Laws 700.1107
- Ward: means an individual for whom a guardian is appointed. See Michigan Laws 700.1108
(b) The person has possession or knowledge of a deed, conveyance, bond, contract, or other writing that contains evidence of, or tends to disclose, the right, title, interest, or claim of the trustee, decedent, or ward to any of the trust or estate.
(c) The person has possession or knowledge of a decedent’s last will.
(2) If the person ordered under subsection (1) refuses to appear and be examined, or refuses to answer the interrogatories asked of the person that relate to the complaint, the judge may by warrant commit the person to the county jail to remain in custody until that person submits to the order of the court.
(3) If fraud is perpetrated in connection with a proceeding or in a statement filed under this act or if fraud is used to avoid or circumvent the provisions or purposes of this act, a person injured by the fraud may obtain appropriate relief against the perpetrator of the fraud or restitution from a person, other than a bona fide purchaser, that benefited from the fraud, whether innocent or not. An action under this subsection shall be commenced within 2 years after the discovery of the fraud, but an action shall not be brought against a person that is not a perpetrator of the fraud later than 5 years after the time of the fraud’s commission. This section does not affect a remedy relating to fraud perpetrated against a decedent during his or her lifetime that affects the succession of the decedent’s estate.
(4) If a person embezzles or wrongfully converts a decedent’s property before letters of authority are granted, or refuses, without colorable claim of right, to transfer possession of the decedent’s property to the personal representative upon demand, that person is liable in an action brought by the personal representative for the benefit of the estate for double the value of the property embezzled, converted, or withheld.