Samuel Hernandez Case

I, Katherine L. Scholl, declare as follows:
1. I am an attorney licensed to practice law before all courts of the State of California. I represented decedent, Samuel Gabriel Hernandez (“Sam”) in his father’s 2013 probate (Case No. 2013-34534-PR-LA-CTL). This declaration is filed in response to questions raised in a Minute Order dated July 19, 2017.
2. Sam was the only child of Samuel Hernandez. Despite the confusion of the same last name, his other siblings are half-siblings on his mother’s side. Samuel Hernandez was divorced from Jenny Hernandez and unmarried at the time of his death, making his son, Sam the sole heir to his estate.
3. At the closing of the estate there were no cash assets and realistically Sam would have had to sell his house to raise the funds to pay the debt. Having a probate sale would have cost more money and would have left Sam without a house to live in. As a family friend, I wanted to help prevent that, so I agreed to be paid outside of probate and attached a lien to the property located at 864 Del Rio, Encinitas, California, through a recorded order, signed by Honorable Judge Jeffrey Bostwick in the amount of $15,678.26.
4. Before his death, Samuel G. Hernandez paid $7,000 towards the probate fees. The balance still owed as of May 8,

After Sam’s father died in January 2013, Sam struggled to manage the property at 864 Del Rio, Encinitas, California. Sam lived in an unpermitted 1-bedroom unit added to the back of the house which left a 3-bedroom house available for rent. Sam rented the main house to his friend Chris Cook (“Chris”) and his girlfriend Cynthia. Sam did not want to deal with the business side of the rental so I agreed to help him manage the property. With myself and Chris’s help, Sam was able to catch up on past due utilities and his mortgage. Chris rented the property below market value for the area, but the house and yard were in poor condition at the time and Sam preferred to rent to a friend rather than a