• 28
  • July
    2011

One of the actors who played a Munchkin in the film "The Wizard of Oz," Mickey Carroll, died in 2009. Shortly after his death at the age of 89, some of his family members hired investigators to find out what had happened to a significant amount of money that Carroll had owned, but that had disappeared.

The family suspected a woman who acted as Carroll's caretaker. Carroll lived with the woman for the last two years of his life, and the woman also served as a caretaker for Carroll's nephew, who has cerebral palsy. The caretaker had power of attorney over Carroll's financial affairs, and Carroll's relatives believed that the caretaker was abusing her power of attorney and stealing money from Carroll.

On the day Carroll died, his relatives sued the caretaker to try to wrest some of the money back that they believed the caretaker had misappropriated.

Florida power of attorney abuse lawyers noted from news reports of the case that the lawsuit claims the defendants improperly convinced Carroll to give the caretaker power of attorney. The lawsuit alleges he lacked capacity to do this because he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease at the time.

The suit claims that the caretaker and some of her friends convinced Carroll to borrow $100,000 on a line of credit related to the home Carroll had lived in for almost seventy years.

The family claims that Carroll wrote three mysterious checks to "cash," within days of opening the line of credit. One check was for over $42,000, the other two for $27,000. Within a month of the opening of the line of credit, the $100,000 was gone except for $250.

The caretaker claimed she took care of Carroll like a member of her own family.

Carroll's relatives claim that the caretaker used her power of attorney to embezzle $225,000 from Carroll's bank account. They allege another $6000 was taken from a cashed-out life insurance policy, and $11,000 from an investment account.

Source: Daily Journal "Suit accuses caretaker and her friends of bilking actor who played 'Wizard of Oz' Munchkin" 7/28/2011