AFTER many years of delivering Christmas Cheer around the world, Santa decides it is time to get his legal affairs in order.
He visits his long-time solicitor Ebenezer Scrooge, who dutifully prepares a Power of Attorney (‘POA’) appointing Santa’s son, Kringle Jr.
The POA contains a specific power allowing Kringle Jr. to oversee “emergency operational decisions” strictly relating to “the distribution of gifts, management of the reindeer herd and the elves’ employment”.
Santa executes the POA in the presence of Scrooge, who witnesses the appointment as a legal practitioner.
Mrs Claus convinces Santa that even immortal gift-givers deserve a holiday, so they fly off to the Caribbean, leaving Christmas in the “capable” hands of Kringle Jr.
After two weeks, Santa receives a call from Dr Suess, deeply concerned for his distressed elf clients who have not been paid and were threatening to go on strike.
Santa immediately checks the North Pole Operating Account and discovers several large transactions to Kringle Jr Enterprises for consulting fees, a gold-plated sports model sleigh and an Airbnb charge for a “self-morale retreat” in Whoville.
Santa and Mrs Claus immediately abandon their pina coladas and race back to the North Pole, where they are greeted by a host of angry elves yelling “No Pay, No Sleigh!”
Santa seeks urgent advice from Scrooge who, with his usual frosty precision, confirms that while Kringle Jr had been given authority to make emergency decisions, siphoning funds for personal use was a breach of his fiduciary duties.
The conduct of an attorney is subject to strict obligations to always act in the principal’s best interests and unless expressly authorised, an attorney cannot personally benefit from their role.
Scrooge explains that emergency decisions do not reasonably include purchasing gold-plated sleighs or spa weekends.
Santa promptly revokes Kringle Jr as his POA, scrambles to pay the elves and Christmas is saved just in the nick of time.
Meanwhile, Kringle Jr receives a permanent one-way ticket to the Naughty List.
Thank you to Rhiannon Beck, for her assistance with this column.
This fictional column is not legal advice.
By Manny WOOD, Solicitor
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