Untrustees 0
Another tale illustrating the marvelous magic of fee market capitalism.
Private estate manager Thomas Thorpe of Los Gatos charged a brain-injured San Jose man $108,771 after just 4½ months’ work — and then billed him more than twice that much in a legal battle to defend his fees.
“What did he contribute to the whole process? For the $100,000, could you give me one example?” Justice Franklin Elia demanded of Thorpe’s attorney, Ellyn Nesbit. “Give me a $20,000 example!”
At the rate Thorpe and his lawyers were running up bills in 2010, Elia said, there would soon be nothing left of 37-year-old Danny Reed’s $653,000 in life savings.
