Sued a shelter

To sum it up, my little brother was injured a long time ago at a shelter, my dad sued, we won. He tried to get the money for himself, but they said only my brother can get it; after he turns 18. He kept my mom out of the loop so she knows nothing about anything, and they are now divorced. The only thing she knows is it happened in Wayne County. My brother is now 18 but we have absolutely NO idea in how to go about getting it, and contacting my dad is out of the question. Any suggestions?

What kind of shelter?  Private?  Church?  Does anybody remember the name of the shelter?  Anybody remember what year, month, etc?  Anybody remember the name of the attorney?  Surely somebody remembers something.  Start with what they can remember and start searching court records in that county in the proper timeframe and you might get some results.  If need be, after you get the year, name of shelter, etc try contacting a local attorney for assistance.  They will know how to search court records.

Why is contacting Dad out of the question?  Is he dead?

I suggest that the first thing to do is visit the courthouse and do a search of civil cases under your brother's name (and your dad's - they might both be listed on the same case).

Once you find the case file, it should tell you everything you need to know, and you can get copies of the appropriate documents.

She cant remember the name of the shelter, but she thinks it was on Marlborough St in Detroit. She said it happened when he was about 2, so probably in 1995. Do you have a good site I can search? I tried a few and made some calls but to no avail. What kind of attorney would I contact? He is not dead, but a really bad person who did some really bad things to us, and is nowhere near trustworthy or helpful. We actually had to get a restraining order against him. Thanks so much for your help! :)

Can I go to any courthouse then? Because I have no idea which one to go to...

Call up the Wayne County Clerk's office:

Main Office (313) 224-6262 2 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI 48226

Ask where those kinds of court record files are kept.

They might be able to do a name search on the phone and give you a case number. But once you get that, you'll have to go there to review the case file and get copies.

Get copies of the case file before you start thinking about attorneys. There might be something your brother can do without an attorney.

We might be able to make suggestions about that but you have to explain what's in the file and where the money has been kept.

Thank you. I called earlier but they cant give me any information so Im going to see what happens if I go there in person. I'll reply back once I get more info, if any.

I went down there today and found the case number and everything, thank God. I ordered the file so I just have to wait until Tues Jan 3 after 2:00. Hopefully its not alot of pages since its $2.75/page! I'll keep this updated..

Generally you can sit there and read the file -free-- and decide what pages you need copy --and in my local courthouse they have several copy machines --I think for about 25 cents a page but you need to buy and put a balance on a form of charge card as local oficces don't give out  coins and you quickly run out of coins...

Its quite likley if there was an award it was to be held by some sort of court supervised custodian until child became of age --that will be a key topic to look for in files...

Since the pages were so expensive, I only printed 3 I think were needed. It has all the info, like the plaintiff, which is my brother, a minor by his next friend, my Dad. Then it has 'Amended Order for Approval of Settlement', It is furthur ordered that the settlement is...further ordered and adjudged that the said sum be disbursed as follows: law firm gets...Future periodic payment to plaintiff...The obligation to make the future periodic payment described above may be assigned to C. U. Annuity Service Corp "assignee" and funded by an annuity contract issued by Commercial Union Life Ins Co of America, rated A+... Is this what I needed? What would be my next step now?

That certainly shows there should have been some funds put into a pot for the plaintiff.  It doesn't prove the funding steps took place or the funds moved to the named "assignee"  --but odds are the lawfirm got paid -and that strongly  suggests the rest of the funds went somewhere--and that there is an annuity contract someplace.

It doesn't prove that  funds were assigned to said firm--its possible Dad get fingers  into pie --but don't jump to premature conclusions ---

Me, if I were brother, I'd write a short crystal clear letter to both corprations referencing the case by file #, place, date etc and ask where are the funds and request that payment be made to me at my address--and follow up at least twice in writing, keep safe copies.   See what responses one gets....Brother needs to do this .

There are probably other pages a lawyer would want to read--but at least for now you know it exists and were to get rest of file --and if necessary you go back with more cash more pages.

dh08:

The obligation to make the future periodic payment described above may be assigned to C. U. Annuity Service Corp "assignee" and funded by an annuity contract issued by Commercial Union Life Ins Co of America, rated A+... Is this what I needed? What would be my next step now?

I agree with Drew.

Next step is for your brother to make inquiry to both those companies.

The annuity company might be a subsidiary of the life insurance company and I believe that the life insurance company is now called CGU Life Insurance Company of America, with a US headquarters at:

108 Myrtle St
Quincy, MA 02171
617-770-1620 or 617-786-2250

I suggest a phone call to make sure you have the right company, number, and address.

If the phone gets answered by AVIVA you might still be in the right place since I found that company at the same address.

You might also contact the Defendant for any records on what might have happened to the settlement.

The law firm and attorney that represented plaintiff probably has somewhat decent records --and you can probably look up if same attorney is with said firm etc. Brother might get some limited help-leads --by polite  request--but he won't get too much time spent on task unless he starts paying for service at prevailing rates ---so don't overestimate what help one can get "free."

A remote possibility is that folks were unable to find annuitant (brother) for a number of years that the funds escheated by law to the state-most likley MI  but don't rule out need to look in MI or MA is firm says funds "escheated" --its generally not fatal--just a bit of paperwork to claim them.

Drew:

A remote possibility is that folks were unable to find annuitant (brother) for a number of years that the funds escheated by law to the state-most likley MI  but don't rule out need to look in MI or MA is firm says funds "escheated" --its generally not fatal--just a bit of paperwork to claim them.

Good point.

Here's the MI Treasury webpage where that can be looked up.

http://michigan.gov/treasury/0,1607,7-121-44435-7924--,00.htm

And here's a site if a national search is necessary.

http://www.unclaimed.org/