Report to the Judges (narrative only)

2000.08.08   (Jesse Wilson's Report to the Judges)
"To the Honorable Judges of Said Court:
RE: Estate of Harold A. OConnell, Trust
Fiduciary No. 21840
1. By a Tenth Account duly filed herein and approved by the undersigned on August 25, 1995, the trustee herein, Anthony M. 0'Connell, properly accounted for all of the remaining assets reported as being assets of the trust created by the will of Harold OConnell and reported a zero balance on hand. A copy of said account is filed herewith as Exhibit 1.
2. By an Eleventh Account, Anthony M. OConnell, trustee, again reported zero assets on hand and no receipts or disbursements. A copy of said account is filed herewith as Exhibit 2.
3. Both the Tenth and Eleventh accounts carried the notation "This is not a final account".
4. In the ordinary case, an account which shows the distribution of all remaining assets is filed as a Final Account, and its approval terminates the fiduciary's responsibility to the Court and permits the Commissioner of Accounts to close the file.
5. The said trustee has also filed a Twelfth Account in which he reports as an asset $659.97 "due from the Estate of Jean M. OConnell".  A copy of that "account" is enclosed herewith as Exhibit 3.
6. The Estate of Jean M. OConnell, deceased, Fiduciary No. 49160, was closed in the Commissioner of Accounts office after approval of a Final Account on May 31, 1994.
7. The said $659.97 was the subject of correspondence between the said trustee and Edward J. White, attorney and co-executor of the estate of Jean M. OConnell, copies of which are attached hereto as Exhibits 4*[May 19, 1992, letter] and 5. In his letter,
Exhibit 5, the trustee explains that the $659.97 is part of a net income payment of $1,475.97 which the trust owed the estate of Jean M. OConnell. In that same letter, the trustee states that "At this point in time, I believe Mr. Balderson and I are of one mind that the estate does not owe the trust and the trust does not owe the estate".
Mr. Balderson was a CPA for the estate. Both of these letters were provided to the Commissioner of Accounts by the trustee in support of his "Twelfth Account".
8. The trustee also provided the Commissioner with a copy of a page from a "Jean M. OConnell estate tax analysis" which shows $659.97 under "Assets" of that estate as "Debt from Harold OConnell Trust".  A copy of that page is attached as Exhibits 6.
From a review of this information the Commissioner finds that there is no evidence to support an assertion by the trustee that the $659.97 is an asset of the trust. To the contrary, it appears that either it is not a debt at all, or, from the estate's point of view, it was money owed by the trust to the estate, i.e. an asset of the estate of Jean M. OConnell. That estate has been closed for more that six years.
Accordingly, the foregoing Eleventh Account of Anthony M. OConnell, Trustee has been marked a "Final Account" by the undersigned and is hereby approved as a Final Account in the trust under the will of Harold A. OConnell and is filed herewith.
In the event that the trustee is successful in recovering $659.97 or any other funds which are proper trust assets to be accounted for, such may be reported to the Commissioner of Accounts by an Amended Inventory and, thereafter, accounted for by proper accounts.
GIVEN under my hand this 8th day of August, 2000.
Respectfully submitted,
Jesse B. Wilson, III
Commissioner of Accounts
Fairfax County, Virginia
JBW:jcs
Enc.: Exhibits, 1 - 6
cc: Anthony M. OConnell, Trustee"
(See the exhibits in the pdf reference)