Guardianship of Pollard

Alison E. Clapp O’Callaghan and her husband, Daniel J. O’Callaghan, petitioned the Hampshire County Probate and Family Court for the guardianship of Alison’s second cousin, Hortense Clapp Pollard. The petition was filed in March of 1998, when Hortense was almost ninety years old. The petitioners alleged that Hortense was suffering from mental illness such that she could not care for herself and her affairs. The petitioners later supplemented their initial petition with .a request for temporary guardianship, and purported to amend the petition by adding “physical incapacity or illness” as a…