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Published Wednesday, January 25, 2012 in Local

Royal case delayed to Feb. 13

By Alex McRae

The Newnan Times-Herald

Legal action against former Newnan certified public accountant Mayo Royal has been continued until Feb. 13, according to Assistant District Attorney Ray Mayer of the Coweta Judicial Circuit.

Royal faces seven counts of theft by taking and one count of false swearing. In late 2011, his case was scheduled to be heard on Monday before Coweta County Superior Court Judge William F. Lee.

Lee's 2009 judgment against Royal in a related civil case was partially upheld and partially overturned by the Georgia Supreme Court in 2010. Lee's decision involved the contested multi-million dollar Edgar Hollis estate, of which Royal served originally as the executor.

In January 2009, Fred Blackwell, the trustee of a testamentary trust that was listed as a beneficiary of the last will and testament of Coweta native Edgar Hollis, filed a civil action action in which he sought an accounting of the Hollis estate, the removal of Royal as executor, and damages resulting from Royal's purported breach of his fiduciary duty.

Following Royal's resignation in May 2009 from the post he had held since August 2006, the Probate Court of Coweta County appointed local attorney Robert Hancock as temporary administrator of the Hollis estate, and, in December 2009, the trial court granted the estate's motion to intervene.

In July 2010, Judge Lee granted Blackwell's and Hancock's motions for summary judgment.

In originally granting the motions in favor of Blackwell and Hancock, the Coweta County Superior Court found that Royal had breached repeatedly the fiduciary duty he owed the estate and that those breaches supported an award of damages to Blackwell and the Hollis Estate and a forfeiture of any compensation paid to Royal as executor.