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Russ Ex Rel. Schwartz v. Russ
Wisconsin Supreme Court (2007) | 2007 WI 83; 302 Wis. 2d 264; 734 N.W.2d 874; 2007 Wisc. LEXIS 414
TL;DR: An agent under a power of attorney (POA) used funds for his own benefit from a joint account he shared with the principal. The court held this was not a breach of fiduciary duty because the account pre-existed the POA and evidence showed the principal intended the arrangement to continue.
Legal Significance: This case establishes a "conflicting presumptions" framework for when an agent's fiduciary duty against self-dealing clashes with the statutory presumption of donative intent in a pre-existing joint account, allowing courts to consider extrinsic evidence of the principal's intent.