Mother sues sons for emptying her $800k account

A Jefferson County woman claims her sons got their hands on her retirement account without her permission and is asking a judge to stop them and return her money.

Lena Sonnier says her sons John Wayne Sonnier and Larry Sonnier used a power of attorney to transfer $800,000 from her Edward Jones account. She filed a petition for injunctive relief against her sons on June 12 in Jefferson County District Court.

That same day, Judge Bob Wortham, 58th District Court, granted a temporary restraining order, stopping the Sonnier boys from dipping into their mother's retirement and keeping them from using any further power of attorney privileges.

According to Lena Sonnier's suit, on June 2, 2008, her sons transferred all of the assets from her Edward Jones account into a new Edward Jones account, owned solely by the defendants.

"Upon information and belief, Plaintiff has learned that her sons used a Power of Attorney in order to transfer these funds to their account without her permission," the suit says.

"Edward Jones now recognizes Defendants as the owners of the account and has refused to transfer the account back to Plaintiff. At no time did Plaintiff ever give permission for the Defendants to transfer this money to their own benefit."

Lena has executed a revocation of any power of attorney given to her boys and is asking Judge Wortham to return her account to her in full, alleging her sons are guilty of breach of fiduciary duty.

"Plaintiff brings this lawsuit for breach of fiduciary duty and for injunctive relief to enjoin Defendants from using, transferring, disbursing, and asking the Court to freeze the account by way of a temporary restraining order, temporary injunction and permanent injunction," the suit says.

Lena is also suing for court costs, including attorneys' fees.

She is represented by attorney Wyatt D. Snider of the Snider Byrd law firm.

Case No. A181-906