In re Estate of Aram Dermanouelian
Annotate this CaseAppellant Estate of Aram Dermanouelian (the Estate) appealed a superior court judgment which granted a "Motion for Summary Reversal" filed by Appellee Co-Executor Jo-Ann Dermanouelian. The effect of the Superior Court’s ruling was to reverse a Probate Court order. The Probate Court’s order that was reversed had granted a "Motion to Strike" filed by the Estate; the target of that motion to strike was the entry of appearance of an attorney whom Ms. Dermanouelian had engaged to represent her in her capacity as a co-executor of the Estate. On appeal, the Estate contended that the Superior Court erred in granting Ms. Dermanouelian’s motion for summary reversal: a co-executor may act neither unilaterally nor individually in hiring legal counsel to assist the co-executor in his or her official capacity. Upon review, the Supreme Court found that a co-executor may individually engage counsel at any time to represent him or her in his or her capacity as a co-executor—at least when the attorney is engaged at the co-executor’s expense. "We recognize that complications will often arise when one or more co-executors personally select(s) an attorney to represent him or her in that capacity. . . . Nevertheless, we are of the opinion that, in view of a co-executor’s role as a fiduciary (with all of the attendant responsibility and potential liability that that role entails) and bearing in mind the personal nature of the attorney-client relationship, it is "essential that he [or she] have the selection of the attorney who is to assist him [or her] in the performance of duties imposed on him [or her] by law."
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