Jesse Wilson

1984

1984.11.15   (Summons) (Jesse Wilson to Jean OConnell)
"SUMMONS To the Sheriff of Fairfax Co   STATE OF VIRGINIA, GREETINGS:  WHEREAS, Jean M. OConnell   654 1 Franconia Road   Springfield. VA    qualified on the above date as fiduciary of the above-referenced matter and has failed  to make certain filings with the Commissioner of Accounts as required by law as more particularly set forth below;
THEREFORE, you are hereby directed to summons said fiduciary to present before me, within thirty (30) days from the date of the service of this summons, the following:
A proper Accounting accompanied by the required fee and vouchers GIVEN under my hand in Fairfax County, Virginia, this 15th day of November, 1984
Jesse Wilson III
(Deputy) Commissioner of Accounts"

 

1984.11.15 (?) (Memo on 3x5 card in unknown handwriting)
 "OConnell; Harold A.   21840 summons
Acct. due      filed
Sent to Sheriff: 11-15-84
Summons served: 11-16-84
Due action: 12-16-84
Ext 1-31-85"

1985

1985.05.08 (+?)   (Appointment changed from Robert McClandlish to Jesse Wilson by Jesse Wilson)
(Editing note:  While I, Anthony OConnell, was visiting my mother, Jean OConnell, she received Robert McCandlishs letter of May 8, 1985. She showed it to me and I called Robert McCandlish and made an appointment to meet with him. When I went to the appointment and was about to enter Robert McCandlish's office, Jesse Wilson stopped me and said that I was to meet with him. I never saw Robert McClandlish.
The computations below were done by Jesse Wilson while he was explaining the marital share to me. The implication was that there was a problem arriving at the correct marital share. This was the only thing he discussed.)
"$ 16,539.98  passed directly outside of probate
   90,650.27  probate
107,190.25   gross estate
     8734.77
98,455.48 [divided by] 2 = 49,227.74
                          16,593.88
                       $ 32,633.86
107,109.25 gross
  - 41,38.42 expenses
103,051.83 net [divided by] 2 = 51,525.92
  16,593.88               -16,593.88
                               $ 34,932.04
103,051.83
                            90,650.27   probate et.
                       -34,932.04  Share to wife
                        55,718.23
                          4,596.31  taxes
                        51,121.88
                           $ 100,000
                               entire
                 $25,000
                     50%              50%
                       to             to Trust
                       wife"

1986

1986.07.22   Summons nailed to door (Jesse Wilson to Jean OConnell)
"SUMMONS To the Sheriff of County of Fairfax   STATE OF VIRGINIA, GREETINGS:  WHEREAS, Jean M. OConnell   654 1 Franconia Road   Springfield. VA    qualified on the above date as fiduciary of the above-referenced matter and has failed  to make certain filings with the Commissioner of Accounts as required by law as more particularly set forth below;
THEREFORE, you are hereby directed to summons said fiduciary to present before me, within thirty (30) days from the date of the service of this summons, the following:
A proper Accounting accompanied by the required fee and vouchers GIVEN under my hand in Fairfax County, Virginia, this 22nd  day of July, 1986
Jesse Wilson III
(Deputy) Commissioner of Accounts"

1993

1993.03.20   (Debts and Demands) (Edward White to Jesse Wilson, and it became part of the first accounting of the estate of Jean OConnell, at Book 0467 page 0195)
"At the request of Edward J. White, Co-Executor and Attorney and Agent of the estate of Jean M. OConnell , deceased, I gave the notice required by Section 64.1-171 of the Code of Virginia, 1950, as amended, setting the 30th day of December, 1992, at 10:30 A. M. at my office in Fairfax, Virginia, as the time and place for receiving proof of debts and demands against the estate of Jean M. OConnell.
At the said time and place, no one appeared to offer to prove any debts or demands against said estate.
I hereby certify that I have stated the foregoing account of Jean M. OConnell, deceased, after having given the notice required by law, and have approved the same. Vouchers for the disbursements were submitted to me.
GIVEN under my hand this 20th  day of March, 1993.
Jesse B. Wilson, III
Commissioner of Accounts
Fairfax County, Virginia"

 

1993.07.20   (Jesse Wilson to Anthony OConnell)
"RE: Estate of Jean M. OConnell
Fiduciary No. 49160
Dear Mr. OConnell
This will acknowledge receipt of your letter of June 29, 1993 concerning the above estate.
The first account in this matter was approved in March of this year and has been sent to the Clerk's Office and may be reviewed there.
The second account, for the period ending December 10,
1993, is due on or before April 10, 1994. While these papers are in this office, they are a public record which you may review. However, they will be audited and approved in due course regardless of whether they have been reviewed by you.
Yours very truly,
Jesse B. Wilson, III
Commissioner of Accounts"

 

1993.09.10   (Jesse Wilson to Anthony OConnell)
(Editing note: During one of the dozen or so visits I made to the Commissioner's office to try to see the accountings for my mother's estate before they were approved, I asked if I could get make a copy of  a letter from Edward White that I found in a folder. Jesse Wilson told me that I could not make a copy but that I could transcribe it.)
1993.9.10   (Anthony OConnell's memo at top of transcription)
"The following words were transcribed by me from the original letter for public view at the Commissioner of Accounts Office. It is transcribed because the public is not allowed to make copies of correspondence but is allowed tro take notes. I mention this because I may have made some errors in rereading my own handwriting, but there is no willful intent to misrepresent. Anthony OConnell 9/10/93"
1993.7.28 (Edward White to Jesse Wilson)
"A Mr. Anthony OConnell wrote you on July 26, 1993 requesting that no expenses be allowed me for defending myself against an ethics complaint which he filed dealing with events as far back as 1985 when I represented his mother. Since I am somewhat sensitive to the fact that this was the only such complaint filed against me in 26 years of practice, and the fact that we have known each other professionally and socially for a long time, I am constrained to point out that the complaint was dismissed without a hearing. Bar Counsel noted in his three page letter to Mr. OConnell that "I see no basis in fact or law to conclude that Mr. White has engaged in any misconduct . . . . . "  As far as the estate is concerned, I wrote Mr. OConnell long ago  and explained that the co-executor's commission is [a half] % of the receipts of the estate subject to approval by the Commissioner. I have never entertained the idea of submitting any personal expenses for estate matters. There are other ways to deal with that problem. Rest assurred that my time in this case is fully documented. With best reguards, I am sincerely,
Edward J. White (seal)"

1995

1995.02.13  (Jesse Wilson to Judge Kenny)
"RE: Estate of Jean M. OConnell
Fiduciary No. 49160
Dear Judge Kenny:
In response to your letter of February 1, 1995 concerning the above matter, a review of our records shows that a Final Account was approved in June, 1994 and we have closed our file.
In a letter to the Attorney General, copy enclosed, Mr. OConnell says (paragraph 2.) that "Exceptions to the Commissioner's Report" were filed. However, I have no other information about that.
If, in fact, no exceptions were timely filed or, if filed were overruled, then I believe, for most purposes, the estate would be considered closed in that the known responsibilities of the personal representatives are deemed to have been properly discharged, and they are entitled to be relieved of their obligation under their bond. See, S26-33. I say this primarily as information for Mr. OConnell who, as I understand it, is concerned about whether the estate is "open" or "closed" within the meaning of the Instructions promulgated by the Virginia Department of Taxation for applying for funds in settlement of tax refund claims by the estates of retired federal employees.
If this matter should be re-opened or re-committed to me for any reason, I, of course, will act accordingly.
Please let me know if there is anything else you wish me to do at this time.
Yours very truly,
Jesse B. Wilson, III
Commissioner of Accounts"

2000


2000.08.08   (Jesse Wilson to Anthony OConnell)
"RE: Estate of Jean M. OConnell
Fiduciary No. 49160
Dear Mr. OConnell
This will acknowledge receipt of a copy of your letter of July 24, 2000 to Judges of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit Court of Virginia.
While I do not presume to speak for the Court or any of the Judges, I think that it is safe to say:
(1) the Court is not organized or constituted for the purpose of conducting the sort of investigation required to establish the facts that you allege in your letter. The Court can only decide cases based on evidence produced by others;
(2) the officials who are responsible for conducting investigations of alleged crimes in Virginia are the Commonwealth Attorneys (the prosecutors) in each jurisdiction and the police departments and their detectives. If the available facts are sufficient to convince the Commonwealth's Attorney that it can be proved that a crime has been committed, and that a prosecution is not barred by the statute of limitations, his/her job is to bring the matter before the Court.
I hope this will be helpful.
Very truly yours,
Jesse B. Wilson, III
Commissioner of Accounts"

 

2000.08.08   (Jesse Wilson to Anthony OConnell)
"Enclosed please find a copy of my report approving your 1 l t h account as trustee in the above matter as your Final Account. As you will see from the report, it appears to me from the information you have provided that the $659.97 debt you report is not a trust asset. Even if the debt existed as you suggest, it's collectability would be so problematic and uncertain, and the effort so costly, as to render it worthless and make reasonable a decision for it to be abandoned as an asset. It certainly should not be the basis for keeping this trust estate open and requiring the filing of annual accounts indefinitely.
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.
If you disagree with this action by me, you may file exceptions with the
Court within fifteen (15) days of the filing of my report and take the matter up directly with the Court.
Very truly yours,
Jesse B. Wilson, III
Commissioner of Accounts"

 

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. 07Connell, 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 3 1, 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 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)