A Pennsylvania lawyer who was paid for legal services by the daughter of an incapacitated woman is under no obligation to return that money to the estate, despite an Orphans’ Court’s finding that the fee was paid using funds that were unlawfully transferred to the daughter.

In In re Carol Shiner Rosenbloom, an Incapacitated Person, a three-judge panel of the Superior Court unanimously ruled Feb. 14 to vacate an order of the Allegheny County Orphans’ Court requiring attorney Margie Hammer of Lieber Hammer Huber & Paul in Pittsburgh to return $65,000 in legal fees to the estate of her former client, Carol Shiner Rosenbloom.