Column: Prominent San Diego attorney faces eviction from retirement home

San Diego Union-Tribune (CA)

Four years ago a Union-Tribune business article highlighted the life of high-profile attorney Stacey Sullivan. Six months shy of his 90th birthday, he was still active in the community.

As the former attorney for hotelier Barron Hilton, then owner of the Chargers, Sullivan was a key player in helping Hilton move the football team to San Diego in 1961. They played in Balboa Stadium until the Mission Valley stadium was built.

When the Spanos family was contemplating moving the team back to Los Angeles, Sullivan leaped into action four years ago, contacting San Diego movers and shakers to lobby to keep the team here.

He also was a loyal supporter of The Old Globe Theatre and served twice as its board chair, galvanizing support to raise $6 million when the Balboa Park theater burned down in 1978. He greeted Queen Elizabeth when she officially re-opened the theater in 1983. He also promoted the local Soviet Arts Festival with its exhibit of rare Fabergé eggs at the San Diego Museum of Art in 1989 and aided the city schools' court-mandated desegregation effort.

"He was absolutely essential in the evolution of our theater from a pretty small community-based organization to one of the leading theaters in the country," said Tom Hall, former Old Globe managing director.

Today is a far different story. Sullivan is all but broke and faces eviction from a senior assisted living facility for unpaid bills.

So, what happened?

As with many who outlive their resources, it was a perfect storm. He broke his hip on Dec. 26, 2018, and medical co-pays for his surgery and post-operative care piled up. It wasn't long before the long-term health care insurance he thought would cushion his journey into old age ran out, leaving him with monthly Social Security and V.A. benefits eclipsed by growing health care bills.

Setting the stage for his financial crisis was a series of events that included bad investments, the collapse of his New York-based law firm, Finley Kumble, and the need to pay off its creditors, as well as a protracted divorce from his second wife and costly health care for one of his children.

His daughter, Monica Sullivan, who lives in San Diego and works as a federal court law clerk, has taken charge of his finances. She was blindsided by a letter received from his care facility proposing to start eviction proceedings in two weeks. She is negotiating with St. Paul's Villa for more time and a reduced payment schedule.

Her father is now on a list to move into the Veterans Home in Chula Vista, but the wait is about one and a half years, she says. She started a Go Fund Me page on her father's behalf in early February, explaining, in part, "he has required an increasing level of care and has now exhausted his resources. He has a large outstanding balance at his care facility that neither he nor his kids can cover."

When people inquire about support from his eight children — six with his first wife and two with his second wife — Monica explains that they all help where they can, buying groceries, paying for utilities and living necessities, driving him to doctor and haircut appointments, and more. But none of her siblings are financially well off, she says, having chosen careers in lower paying professions such as social work, environmental causes, religious ministry, teaching special education and acting.

"We're doing everything we can to help, but we have limited resources," she says.

As of March 2, the Go Fund Me appeal had attracted lots of encouraging words and nearly $3,000 of its $15,000 target.

St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, which oversees a senior services network, including St. Paul's Villa, has helped Sullivan with expenses through its clergy discretionary fund.

"Stacey is very friendly and outgoing and would walk over as often as he could with his little dog, Gibbs," said the cathedral's Rev. Canon Brooks Mason. "It was always a pleasure to see him."

Sullivan gives "the deepest thanks I can think of" to those reaching out to help him. " I feel immensely grateful."

I asked him, in retrospect, what he would have done differently?

"I would have learned how to do auto-deposit to my retirement account early in my career and kept on track with it," he says.

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