Chapter 7

Something told me that Kelvin wasn’t totally up to the task of negotiating a settlement on my behalf. The best thing I could think of was to find an attorney that could and make Kelvin agree to assist him. To do that I needed to figure out how people found good lawyers in nineteen-fifty five.

I called the Florida Bar Association and asked for a referral.

“Mr. Ryan, my name is Alistair Monaghan. I received a call from the Florida Bar asking me to accept a referral for a case involving a serious automobile accident case...” We talked for over an hour. He patiently listened while I shared how we ended up beginning the case with Kelvin, my concerns about his experience in high profile cases, and my desire to know I was properly and effectively represented.

Because I was a minor, he needed Tara to agree to sign as my adult guardian while he petitioned to have me emancipated to avoid any claim from Kelvin, or the trucking company that I was not legally allowed to participate in my own case. Tara agreed to everything Alistair requested and we found ourselves in front of a Family Court Judge within two days.

“Mr. Monaghan, please run through the reasons Mr. Ryan should be emancipated, again for me...”

We’d been in closed session for almost two hours. Kelvin suddenly filed an objection and strenuously demanded that he was the only legal representative on my behalf. The judge failed to find in Kelvin’s favor and dismissed him with a stern warning to stay out of the emancipation case, effectively severing any control he might have welded over my life and finances.

Once the question of my right to counsel of my choice was settled, Alistair took the judge through my concerns related to securing competent, experienced and trustworthy representation against the trucking company. During the hearing it came out that Kelvin represented the owner of the trucking company in several personal legal matters and had a conflict of interest that he was legally required to disclose to me.

Once it was established that there was an ethics violation to go with a practical one, the judge ordered the sheriff to deliver Kelvin to the court to answer to him on the matter. Alistair asked the judge for an order freezing my accounts until Kelvin could be removed as signatory and when they showed up to serve the judge’s order, Kelvin was at the bank attempting to withdrawal all of my funds.

The bank canceled the withdrawals, locked Kelvin and his sister out of my accounts, changed all of our account numbers, canceled any access for Kelvin, or his sister, to any account for any reason and agreed to deal with only me or Tara in the future. What should have been a simple request for emancipation turned into multiple felonies and an open and shut disbarment case.

In the end, Tara vouched for the fact that I operated the groves alone, cared for all three of my aunts financially and made my own decisions with regards to banking, bill paying, purchasing and farming. Alistair acknowledged that I called the Bar Association seeking new counsel and that he found my prescience with regards to Kelvin’s crimes to be indicative of an adult in all but age.

After all the hub-bub the judge issued the emancipation order, had it served on the bank, remanded Kelvin to the county jail pending further action and ordered a full audit of all of the Ryan family accounts by the bank, due to suspicion of misfeasance. Alistair informed the court that he intended to file suit against Kelvin and his firm and personal property within twenty-four hours and got the judge to freeze everything Kelvin had until a criminal investigation and financial audit could be completed. The judge set a court date for the hearing on the matter of making the order permanent for the next Friday and declared the court closed for the day.

It was a trying day, but it ended far better than it started.

Alistair promised to take over and aggressively deal with the trucking company. His expectation of a swift and positive result was buoyed by the threat of legal action based on their back room dealings with Kelvin. Heading home with my arm around Tara, I felt that we had things under better control.

Tara had the last comment on Kelvin’s problem as we turned into the driveway. “This town is too small, Michael. Everyone in Winter Haven and the entire county for that matter will know about Kelvin by tonight. He won’t have a single client left by lunch time on Monday.” She was right.

When Tara and I went to the feed and farm store on the way home, several people greeted us and commented on the Kelvin news. Apparently the Winter Haven gossip telegraph system was far more efficient than anything AT&T could come up with. We had dealt with the bank to free up our accounts, so there was no problem paying for our purchases and placing a delivery order for Monday morning.

Tara took responsibility for sharing our experience with the girls over supper. We’d decided that an old fashioned bar-b-que would be fun, so we bought everything we could think of including a new charcoal grill and had a great time cooking, playing games, spraying each other with the hose and generally being a family.

When we sat down to eat, Tara spoke up. “You both knew that Michael and I went to court this morning.” There was a bit of anger still in her eyes and I heard it in her voice as she told the tale of our day.

“Michael was so smart to hire a new lawyer, because Kelvin has been trying to steal from our accounts.’ That stopped Edwina and Cary right in their tracks. They set down their forks and waited for the rest of the story. It was so easy to love those three girls. When they heard someone tried to take advantage of me, they all wanted to help.

“When Alistair, Michael’s new lawyer asked the judge to grant Michael his request to be emancipated, Kelvin showed up and insisted that only he had the right to make decisions for Michael and that he had no legal right to hire a different attorney.

“Alistair would have pitched a fit but the judge just ruled that Michael had every right to look after his best interests and that Alistair made a very good case for Michael to be declared an adult. When he tossed Kelvin out of court, he apparently went straight to the bank and tried to steal from the accounts.