An El Dorado hospital should not have to face a wrongful-death lawsuit because the deceased patient’s son who filed it is a convicted felon, a lawyer for the hospital told the Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday.

The attorney for the Medical Center of South Arkansas also argued that a replacement representative for the dead man’s estate was never officially appointed and that the deadline for doing it has passed.

But the attorney for the dead man’s family told the justices that the lawsuit against the hospital and Courtyard Rehabilitation and Health Center should be allowed to continue despite the problems with the estate’s representatives.

The justices did not set a timetable for a ruling. The primary issue, according to court filings, is whether the appointment of a felon, Bobby Taylor, as the personal representative of his father’s estate makes the entire wrongful-death lawsuit invalid.

Brian Brooks, attorney for the family of L.C. Taylor, said the case holds implications beyond that of the Taylor family.

If the appointment of an estate’s personal representative can be challenged years after the estate is settled, the distribution of the estate and a representative’s other actions could unravel, Brooks said.

“That would cause all manner of mischief, as we put it in our brief, dealing with estates,” Brooks said.

In February 2009, L.C. Taylor died from complications associated with infected bedsores.

Soon after, Union County Circuit Judge Michael Landers appointed Taylor’s son, Bobby Taylor of Fordyce, to represent his father in any legal action on behalf of the estate.

Bobby Taylor filed a lawsuit in May 2011, alleging that his father developed the sores at the Medical Center of South Arkansas and did not receive care for them either there or after he was discharged to the Courtyard Rehabilitation and Health Center.

The next month, during a deposition for the case, Bobby Taylor told attorneys that he had been convicted of a felony several decades before. According to Arkansas Code Annotated 28-48-101, a person convicted of a felony cannot serve as a personal representative in an estate case.

Landers, the circuit judge who appointed the felon as representative, subsequently ruled that Bobby Taylor was never qualified to serve as the personal representative and that his entire tenure in the position was invalid. The family then appealed Landers’ ruling.

In probate court, another son, Ronnie Taylor, was substituted as the estate’s personal representative. In July 2011, Ronnie Taylor, asked the Supreme Court to let him replace his brother in the wrongful-death case so that it could continue. The defendants asked the court to deny the request.

In Thursday’s oral arguments, Brooks said the Supreme Court should recognize that the decisions Bobby Taylor made before he was removed were valid and that his brother, Ronnie Taylor, should be allowed to take his place and pursue the wrongful-death case against his father’s former caretakers.

Beverly Rowlett, a Little Rock attorney representing the hospital, told the justices that the Circuit Court was correct in finding that Bobby Taylor’s initial appointment should be voided.

But several justices questioned what could happen if the high court affirmed that decision.

Justice Paul Danielson asked Rowlett what would happen if a felon was chosen to represent an estate and his appointment was challenged 30 years later - after property and mineral leases had been distributed and royalties had been paid.

But Rowlett said the Taylor case does not involve a typical estate administrator.

“I’m saying that is not this case. … The special administrator is appointed only for the purpose of filing a wrongful-death and survival action. So the next question is does a convicted felon, improperly appointed as a personal representative, have standing under [the law]” to file a wrongful-death case, Rowlett said.

Arkansas, Pages 9 on 10/25/2013