Meager estate gone
as a “social worker” who is always looking out for the best interests of his wards. He said he manages with four full-time employees and 21 part-time support-staff members. He contracts with other lawyers for complex legal matters.
Most lawyers said they average between 20 and 40 wards per full-time staff member in their offices. Kormanik averages 80, if you include him.
Several families complain that Kormanik has too many wards to give any of them individual attention, or even to remember details of the cases.
Kormanik was in court to file for fees just days after Richard Williams died in a Columbus nursing home in the fall of 2012. Kormanik contacted a local funeral home to arrange burial, but he didn’t mention Williams’ death to court officials.
In a letter to the court, Williams’ daughter Rachel Fasig wrote, “I am quite concerned that my father’s guardianship and estate has not received appropriate or compliant representation by Mr. Kormanik.”
Fasig’s letter elicited no follow-up from Franklin County Probate Court. Nothing in court rules requires a guardian to notify the court of a ward’s death.
Kormanik said he needed time to pay Williams’ bills and end arrangements before terminating the guardianship — nine months after Williams’ death.
“They aren’t these neatly tied packages with a little bow on them,” he said. “Each one has its own life, and each one has its own complications.”
Couple separated
In another case, Ellen Humbert wanted to spend her final days with her husband at a Westerville nursing home. They had been married for 45 years, and dementia had robbed Ellen of most of her memories.
A nephew pleaded with Kormanik to get Medicaid approved because the nursing home would not take residents with pending applications. Neither court records nor anyone from the nursing home nor Kormanik could explain why the couple was separated.
“We had a hard time getting phone calls returned” from Kormanik, said John Humbert, the nephew. “We went out and found an elder-law attorney and paid him to get Ellen on Medicaid.”
Critical months passed before Ellen was approved for Medicaid and reunited with her husband in spring 2013. Compounding problems from severe dementia left her speechless. She died about six weeks later.
Don Chapin, of Columbus, who is regarded as an expert elder-law lawyer, was the attorney hired by the family to get Ellen on Medicaid. Chapin said lawyer guardians are often “inexcusably ill-equipped” to handle the Medicaid system.
Kormanik said Medicaid “is the hardest thing we do.” As for getting a ward approved for Medicaid, he said, “That’s something that we try to do, but I don’t know if that’s my responsibility.”
When Kormanik sold Albert Metoyer’s Columbus home at auction for $50,000 in 2008, he kept about $5,800 from the sale for his fees before they were approved by the court. He submitted his bill months later, and it was approved by magistrates.
Kormanik charged attorney rates for reviewing emails and talking to a real-estate agent. He billed $250 to meet with Albert’s son, Phillip.
Albert was a veteran of World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars for the Army and the Air Force. In summer 2007, at age 84, his memory was fading and he was having trouble keeping up with his bills. He had been in Heartland Victorian Village for nearly a year.
Phillip was trying to get his father on Medicaid as the nursing-home bills piled up to more than $71,000.
Without the family’s knowledge, someone from the nursing home contacted Kormanik. The home wanted Kormanik to be Albert’s guardian and to get him on Medicaid so it could be paid.
Phillip said he was blindsided when a notice from Franklin County Probate Court came, telling him that a stranger had filed to become his father’s guardian. A hearing was set.
Kormanik was awarded guardianship in July 2007. He made missteps from the start, according to court records.
His Medicaid applications for Albert were denied four times. Kormanik ignored directions from the local Medicaid office staff that, if followed, would have guaranteed approval, according to court records.
Elder-law expert Chapin said that’s unacceptable.
“I buried my dad. Kormanik (his guardian) didn’t do anything.” — Phillip Metoyer
“It’s utter malpractice for a guardian not to know Medicaid enough that they get denied more than once,” he said. In August 2008, Kormanik submitted a 13-page bill for more than $12,000, mostly related to his failure to get Albert on Medicaid and for dealing with the nursing home’s law firm trying to collect the debt.
After numerous letters from the nursing home about Kormanik’s issues with Medicaid, the court held a rare hearing in January 2009. Kormanik was defiant and combative, according to court transcripts.
Kormanik’s testimony also revealed that Albert had died in October 2008, something the court didn’t know.
Albert’s relatives said they repeatedly called Kormanik’s office when Albert was near death to figure out funeral plans.
“He never contacted me or said anything about the funeral,” Phillip said. “I buried my dad. Kormanik didn’t do anything.”
The magistrate found Kormanik negligent for not getting Medicaid approval because he did not heed directions. The ruling meant Kormanik was personally liable for the remaining debt to the nursing home.
Then-Probate Judge Eric Brown overruled the decision but said Kormanik’s actions were “ineffective,” “inefficient” and “inadequate.” Brown’s ruling released Kormanik of any personal liability.
The same nursing home that chastised Kormanik in front of the court about his Medicaid problems also challenged the fees he charged to sell Albert’s house. Visiting Judge Thomas E. Louden agreed that Kormanik paid himself too much on the house sale, and as punishment, he ordered Kormanik to use some of that money to pay $3,300 to cover some of Albert’s nursing-home debt.
“There have been many issues about the guardian’s performance in this matter,” Louden wrote in his ruling. “The court finds the attorney fees ... far exceed the quality of service to the guardianship.”
Kormanik defended his work, saying the magistrates and judges who reviewed his cases erred. As for Brown’s harsh words, Kormanik said Brown was “early in his career as judge.”
“I am not going to discuss the Metoyer case; it was an anomaly,” he said. “I have paralegals making these bills out, but ultimately, I am responsible. But sometimes we make mistakes.”
Despite signs of deeper trouble, the court handled the case as an isolated incident.