Guardianship & conservatorship; The Estates & Protected Individuals Code; MCL 700.5306(1); MCL 700.5401(3); A legally “incapacitated individual”; MCL 700.1105(a); The Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS)

Concluding that “the DHHS did not offer clear and convincing evidence that” the individual in question (GM) was legally incapacitated, the court vacated the orders of guardianship and conservatorship entered by the probate court, and remanded. In this consolidated case, GM, a purported legally incapacitated adult, appealed of right the probate court’s orders granting the petitions of the DHHS for a guardianship and a conservatorship over her. GM asserted that the “DHHS did not establish, by clear and convincing evidence, that GM was an incapacitated person when both psychological evaluations determined GM was of average intelligence.” In sum, the court found “insufficient evidence to establish that GM was an incapacitated individual under MCL 700.1105(a), leaving the first element for a guardianship under MCL 700.5306 unmet. Further, turning to the conservatorship, the DHHS did not offer clear and convincing evidence that GM suffered from ‘mental illness, mental deficiency, physical illness or disability, chronic use of drugs, chronic intoxication, confinement, detention by a foreign power, or disappearance,’ to the degree that it affected her financial wellbeing, as mandated by MCL 700.5401. To be sure, GM appears to have had lifelong difficulty properly caring for herself, both physically and financially, and we do not minimize the deplorable conditions that were observed inside GM’s home. But the evidence presented thus far was insufficient to show that GM was so incapable as to warrant either a guardianship or a conservatorship.” The court recognized “that additional evidence presented on remand may support a guardianship and a conservatorship, but the existing record does not support either result.”