Judge rules against absent dad
Man seeking half of late son’s $837K settlement
A judge has ruled it would be a “gross miscarriage of justice” to give a man who abandoned his child at age 5 half of an $837,000 settlement over the son’s wrongful death 20 years later.
Milwaukee County agreed in January to pay $1.4 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit by the mother of Brandon Johnson, who died at the Mental Health Complex in 2012.
Johnson, 25, had no spouse or children and no will. By law, his estate would normally pass to his parents in an even split.
But his mother, Alicia Johnson, 48, suggested in court papers that his father, Marcus Crumble,
53, of California, doesn’t deserve a cent because he raped her when she was 15 and never helped raise Brandon, who was born as a result of the attack.
On Wednesday, Circuit Judge David Borowski agreed.
“The Court has seen far too many absent fathers in this community. Out of wedlock births, where a ‘father’ both literally and figuratively abandons a child are a scourge,” he wrote.
“Under the tragic facts and circumstances of this case, including the fact that Mr. Crumble committed both statutory rape and incest, this Court will not allow a sixfigure windfall to be awarded to Mr. Crumble.”
According to their affidavits, Crumble and Johnson were first cousins, and he was 21 when he sexually assaulted her.
While a poorly drafted statute would seem to support Crumble’s claim, Borowski noted that to allow him half of the settlement would clearly contradict what the Legislature intended — that parents who abandon their minor children may not inherit from those children.
“It is an accurate reading, but perhaps an absurd result, that if Brandon died at 17 years and 364 days Mr. Crumble would have been statutorily disinherited from Brandon’s estate, but it Brandon had died one day later Mr. Crumble would be able to inherit despite having abandoned his child,” Borowski wrote.
Perhaps, Borowski wrote, lawmakers thought anyone 18 could create a will and direct their estate not go to an abandoning parent.
But he noted that very few unmarried people without children under 30 actu-
ally create a will.
He said the equitable powers of the probate court allow him to find that allowing Crumble half of the settlement would amount to unjust enrichment.
Borowski ordered that the estate’s special administrator pay Crumble only the amount he spent for Brandon’s funeral, give half of the remaining $837,000 to Alicia Johnson, and keep the balance for 90 days, or longer if Crumble appeals.
More than $562,000 of the $1.4 million the county agreed to pay goes to the law firm that brought the civil rights lawsuit on behalf of Brandon’s estate.
A DNA test confirmed Crumble as Brandon’s father when he was 17, and Crumble paid a few months of child support. He then renewed some contact with his son when he graduated from college, according to Alicia Johnson.