Conservatorship of Tobias

This appeal is from the trial court’s order setting aside certain portions of previous orders settling the 10th and 11th accounts of the former conservator, appellant Margaret I. Heaps. The primary contention raised by Heaps is that the trial court was without authority to grant respondent Cynthia Tobias’s motion to vacate the orders pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 473. We affirm.

I

Heaps was the conservator of the person and estate of her son, James Paul Tobias, from 1973 until December 1986. In late 1986 she discovered that her investment counselor had absconded with approximately $300,000 from her son’s estate and $1.5 million of her own money. An order removing Heaps as conservator was filed on January 2, 1987.

The $300,000 loss in estate funds was reported in Heaps’s final accounting. Tobias, the successor conservator, filed an objection to the discharge of Heaps. The February 24, 1987, hearing on the accounting was not reported. However, the minute order from such hearing shows the clerk checked the box marked “Accounting is approved” and, under the category of “Other,” it was noted, “The Conservator is not discharged.” Heaps’s counsel prepared an…