Welcome to The Home Equity Theft Reporter, a blog dedicated to informing the consumer public and the legal profession about Home Equity Theft issues. This blog will consist of information describing the various forms of Home Equity Theft and links to news reports & other informational sources from throughout the country about the victims of Home Equity Theft and what government authorities and others are doing about it.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Son Uses Surrogate's Court Proceeding In Effort To Wrestle Control Of Dementia-Stricken Mom's $4M Home Of 45 Years, Then Give Her, Live-In Caretaker (His Brother) The Boot
In New York City, the New York Post reports:
“Have you ever seen so many gorgeous blouses?” retired fashion designer Frances Rappaport exclaimed as she sat in her 25th-floor, Central Park South apartment this week, admiring a rack of her colorful silk creations.
The 95-year-old may soon be stripped of that simple pleasure while in her spectacular home.
Rappaport’s three sons are battling in court over their dementia-stricken mom’s $4 million co-op off Seventh Avenue, her home for 45 years.
Michael, 71, the eldest son of late fashion designer David Rappaport and David’s partner-wife, Frances, wants to eject his mom from her three-bedroom spread, according to papers filed in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court.
But middle son Errol, 68, an unemployed, self-described black sheep, wants to keep Mom in her Central Park digs. “I don’t want to bad-mouth my brother,” Errol said. “I just want justice for my mother.”
David, who died in 2010, named his sons co-executors of his will. Born in Harlem to Russian Jewish immigrants, David climbed the fashion ladder, taking his multimillion-dollar Italian knitwear enterprise, Damon Creations, public in 1967.
Frances had her own women’s-wear line, Francesca di Damon. Stars like Lucille Ball coveted her intricate blouses and canary-yellow suits.
Michael, a real-estate investor, told a judge last week that he’ll put his mother up in his own Upper East Side penthouse until he finds her a rental.
Errol lives with his mom rent-free and gets a $2,500 monthly stipend while caring for Frances.
Michael, who declined to comment, is also hitting up his late father’s dwindling estate for $133,000 he claims his parents owe him.
“The administration of [David’s] estate brings to mind Marcellus in Shakespeare’s play ‘Hamlet,’ ” court-appointed evaluator Demarest Duckworth wrote in a February 2012 report. “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
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