Kutzin Wins Appeal on Guardianship Matter Involving Efforts to Reduce a Personal Needs Guardian’s Powers and to Reinstate a Health Care Proxy
Lawyers at McCarthy Fingar are often sought out by courts or other attorneys to handle the most difficult guardianship cases. In Matter of AMH, 2022 N.Y. Slip Op. 00968 (1st Dep’t 2022), Michael S. Kutzin, a partner of the firm whose areas of concentration include guardianship and trusts & estates, was appointed as litigation counsel by the lower court to spearhead AMH’s efforts to reduce her Personal Needs Guardian’s powers and to reinstate the health care proxy that AMH had given in 2015 to her daughter (a physician). The disgruntled son of nonagenarian AMH, who had not seen his mother for more than 4 years, opposed the relief sought by Mr. Kutzin. After multiple motions and a four-day hearing, Mr. Kutzin and his co-counsel obtained the requested relief for AMH; and the lower court denied everything requested by the son. The son’s litigious efforts continued in the Appellate Division, First Department, where he filed three separate appeals and multiple motions, but to no avail. Mr. Kutzin, leading the efforts in the Appellate Division, persuaded the Appellate Division to uphold the lower court’s decision.