March 5, 2018

The Failure of James Brown’s Estate Plan

James Brown intended for his estate to give millions to poor children. However, he passed away 11 years ago, and the children have still not received anything.

It is not clear how much the estate of legendary soul singer James Brown is worth. The estate claims it is worth about $5 million. However, some experts estimate that it could be worth as much as $100 million.

It is clear is what Brown intended to do with his wealth. He had a carefully crafted estate plan that was intended to give millions to poor children throughout Georgia and South Carolina.

Brown passed away in 2006 but his estate has not given any of the money to the children. Instead the estate is still bogged down in numerous lawsuits and remains unsettled, as The New York Times reported in "Why Is James Brown's Estate Still Unsettled? Ask the Lawyers."

The main source of the dispute appears to be a family feud with Brown's children and grandchildren on one side and his widow, who is the estate administrator, on the other side. Numerous lawsuits have been filed.

In perhaps the biggest lawsuit, the children and grandchildren allege that the widow has cut inappropriate side deals for the copyrights to Brown's music. These copyrights are where the bulk of the estate's value likely is found. They also allege in another lawsuit that the widow was not even married to Brown, because she was allegedly also married to another man.

It is safe to say that this dispute is unlikely to end soon. The biggest losers here are the children who would otherwise be receiving assistance.

Reference: New York Times (Feb. 4, 2018) "Why Is James Brown's Estate Still Unsettled? Ask the Lawyers."

January 22, 2018

The Challenge of Compensating Shooter’s Victims

Despite his higher than average personal wealth, there are significant challenges to making sure that all of Stephen Paddock's victims are properly compensated.

It still is not clear why Stephen Paddock decided to commit mass murder by shooting at Las Vegas concert goers from his hotel window. He was relatively well-off and had not been in trouble as far as anyone knows.

Despite the mystery surrounding his motivations, his victims and their families would like to be compensated for his actions.

The good news is that his estate is worth approximately $5 million. That money would ordinarily go to his mother, since Paddock is not known to have had an estate plan. However, Paddock's family has indicated they have no interest in his estate.

The bad news is that there are so many victims, it will be difficult to compensate them all, as The New York Times reports in "The Las Vegas Gunman Was Rich. Will His Wealth Go to the Victims?"

There are some challenges to making sure that all the money goes to the victims.

The first is that the estate could be rolled into an existing victims' compensation fund that has already raised $22 million. However, all of the victims might not be eligible for compensation under the fund's rules.

The second challenge is that many victims are filing independent claims and lawsuits to the estate.

The case is very complicated and the attorneys who are working on it need to be compensated for their time, but not so much that there is nothing left for the victims.

Reference: New York Times (Dec. 23, 2017) "The Las Vegas Gunman Was Rich. Will His Wealth Go to the Victims?"

December 20, 2017February 15, 2024

Vivian Maier Estate’s Copyright Claim

The estate of an unknown woman has won the ability to pursue a claim to her copyrights.

Vivian Maier was never a well-known person during her lifetime. She sometimes worked as a housekeeper and as a nanny.

She did not even always use the same name when seeking employment.

By the end of her life, she was extremely poor. She stopped making payments in 2007 on a small storage locker she had in Chicago. The contents of the locker were auctioned off.

Maier passed away in 2009 still entirely unknown. She had no known heirs or estate plan, as PDN Pulse reported in “Federal Court Sustains Vivian Maier Copyright Claim.”

Included in the Chicago storage locker were a number of photographs and negatives that Maier had taken over the years. She apparently loved to take pictures of what she saw on the street.

However, Maier was not an ordinary amateur photographer.

She was brilliant and interest in her work grew immediately, when some of it was posted online.

Collectors began buying up her works, including a man named Jeffrey Goldstein. He began selling prints of the work and licensing the images for use.

Maier’s estate sued Goldstein for copyright violations. Goldstein asked that the court dismiss the suit, since he claimed to have purchased the works before Maier passed away.

His request has been denied.

Vivian Maier herself will not get to enjoy the benefits of her now famous works. However, her estate will be able to do so.

Reference: PDN Pulse (Nov. 21, 2017) “Federal Court Sustains Vivian Maier Copyright Claim.”

December 6, 2017

Battle Over War Hero’s Remains

Paul Lewis Morigi fought for the U.S. during World War II. While in England, he met and fell in love with Olive Murphy.

The two got married in 1944. However, the marriage did not last long.

They divorced when Olive decided she did not want to move to America with him. She feared she would miss her family too much.

Morigi went on to be a successful banker and a very wealthy man. He also got remarried to an American, Muriel Morigi. They were married for 40 years and had two children together.

At the age of 92, Paul Lewis Morigi divorced Muriel and moved to England, where he remarried Olive Murphy.

He recently passed away and now the two widows are fighting, according the Daily Mail in "Widows at war: British and American wives of war hero banker both want him buried in their own local cemetery – on opposite sides of the Atlantic – so they can visit his grave."

For now at least, the dispute between the two women does not appear to be over Morigi's assets but over where Morigi should be buried.

They both would like him buried close to them, so they can visit his grave easily. Of course, this could easily turn into a fight over his assets later.

It is not clear whether Morigi left any instructions for where and how he would like to be buried. However, it is clear that he probably should have done so.

Reference: Daily Mail (Nov. 3, 2017) "Widows at war: British and American wives of war hero banker both want him buried in their own local cemetery – on opposite sides of the Atlantic – so they can visit his grave."

Estate Planning Attorney

November 20, 2017March 7, 2023

Mediation in Estate Disputes

When family members start fighting over the estate of a loved one, the battle can turn acrimonious.

There is almost no way for there to be a civil intra-family estate dispute, unless the case goes to trial before a judge.

When family members start testifying against each other it is extremely difficult for the wounds to heal. To avoid this problem, many courts prefer that families to try to solve their disputes through other methods before a case goes to trial.

A common way to do this is for the litigants to be sent to mediation which the Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog discussed in “Court Rejects Effort to Avoid Settlement Agreement.”

In mediation a trained, neutral third party attempts to facilitate an agreement between the parties to the dispute. A mediator will often try to get the parties to see the other person’s side and to compromise.

Even when mediation does not instantly help the parties to reach an agreement, it often helps to clarify the issues. Many feuding family members do decide to reach post-mediation settlements.

Mediation does not always work. Some people feel that they are pressured into settling during mediation.

For that reason, it is important to have an attorney during estate litigation as courts are reluctant to allow people who have second thoughts out of any agreements reached during mediation.

Reference: Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog (Oct. 25, 2017) “Court Rejects Effort to Avoid Settlement Agreement.”

October 24, 2017February 27, 2023

Bank Hit with $4 Billion in Punitive Damages

Max Hopper is not a well-known figure. However, he became a wealthy man during his time as an executive at American Airlines.
He was best known for creating an innovative reservation system.

At the time of his death, his estate was valued at $19 million.

Unfortunately, he did not have an estate plan.

The bank JPMorgan was chosen to administer his complex estate. However, Hopper’s widow and her stepchildren grew angry at the way the bank was handling the estate and accused it of delaying distributions for its own benefit.

They sued in a Dallas court.

A jury recently came down with a verdict.

JPMorgan was ordered to pay the plaintiffs $5 million in actual damages and $4 billion in punitive damages, as Bloomberg reports in “JPMorgan Ordered to Pay More Than $4 Billion to Widow and Family.”

It is very likely courts will greatly reduce this punitive damage award, since the Supreme Court has previously ruled that punitive damages must be proportional to actual damages.

Nevertheless, this case highlights an important point.

Estate administrators can be held liable, if they do not faithfully carry out their duties.

The jury in this case believed that the bank was guilty of fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and breaking a fee agreement.

JPMorgan is a sophisticated entity that should have known better.

Estate administrators with less experience would be wise to seek the assistance of an attorney to help them make sure they do not run afoul of the law.

Reference: Bloomberg (Sep. 26, 2017) “JPMorgan Ordered to Pay More Than $4 Billion to Widow and Family.”

August 28, 2017

The Wrong Ashes

A pet cemetery and crematory in Illinois is accused of giving pet owners the ashes of animals that are not their own.

While a local animal rescue volunteer was searching for a missing dog at an Illinois pet cemetery and crematorium that also had an attached animal shelter, he noticed a smell coming from a refrigerator on the property. The closer the volunteer got to the refrigerator, the more overpowering that the smell became.

Upon opening the door, the volunteer discovered the bodies of three dead animals.

One of the animals was a cat that had been implanted with a microchip.

The data on the microchip was read by local authorities and it was discovered that the cat belonged to a family, whose pet had died three years previously.

That family had been given the ashes of a different animal already, according to the Daily Mail in "Pet cemetery is accused of giving the ashes of random animals to grieving owners after dozens of decomposing carcasses were found in a freezer."

It is not clear why the family was given the incorrect ashes or why the cat was never cremated at all.

Unfortunately, the owner of the cemetery committed suicide shortly after the police started their investigation. Therefore, the answers as to why may never be known.

If the owner thought he could avoid any problems by taking his own life, then he was wrong.

It is still possible that his estate could be sued and his family will have to be the ones to face legal consequences, instead of him.

Reference: Daily Mail (July 30, 2017) "Pet cemetery is accused of giving the ashes of random animals to grieving owners after dozens of decomposing carcasses were found in a freezer."

June 20, 2017

Fight Over Barry White’s Estate

When someone says that you should trust them to handle an estate and be fair to you, it is not usually a good idea to agree to that idea, without first seeing the estate plan so you know what you are supposed to receive.

Barry White passed away in 2003. To date, his estate has stayed out of the news.

For a celebrity estate it has been a smooth estate administration by all appearances. However, Darryl White, Barry's son, has now filed a lawsuit opening up the estate to public scrutiny.

Darryl claims that when his father passed away, his widow told Darryl that she would make sure he got his fair share of the estate, as long as he agreed not to challenge the estate. For his part, Darryl claims he never even saw his father's will to know what he was supposed to receive.

He received regular payments until 2015, when they suddenly stopped. He believes the money is now being wasted by his stepmother.

Darryl has filed suit and is demanding to see the will to know what it is he should be receiving.

TMZ reported on this story in "Barry White's Son Sues My Dad's Widow Can't Get Enough of His Dough."

In one sense, this is not an unusual story.

It is very common for children to have fights with a step-parent over an estate. On the other hand, this is an extremely unusual story.

It is not at all common for a child to trust the step-parent enough to agree to her terms, without at least seeing the estate plan and knowing what the child is supposed to inherit.

If nothing else, this case illustrates why it is an obviously bad idea for the child to agree to that.

Reference: TMZ (May 24, 2017) "Barry White's Son Sues My Dad's Widow Can't Get Enough of His Dough."

June 15, 2017

Alan Thicke Estate Battle

Alan Thicke's sons are fighting with their stepmother over their father's estate.

Two of deceased actor Alan Thicke's sons have entered the probate case to settle their father's estate with a unique claim. The have filed a claim suggesting that Thicke's third wife, Tanya Callau, is attempting to get more of the estate than she is entitled to receive and that she has threatened to go to the tabloids, if she does not get her way.

Thicke and Callau had a prenuptial agreement and she is already set to get a sizeable portion of his estate. Her take includes 25% of his personal assets, 40% of the remainder of the estate, a $500,000 life insurance payment and she can stay in the residence for the remainder of her life.

The sons have not stated what else Callau wants and it is not known what she would tell the tabloids, if she went to them.

TMZ reported this story in "Alan Thicke Sons Go To War With His Wife To Protect the Estate."

Other than the celebrity nature of this estate and the alleged threat to get the tabloids involved, this is, of course, not a particularly unusual estate battle.

Adult children are often at odds with a surviving step-parent and that battle often makes its way into probate court to fight over the estate. This is especially true when there are large sums of money involved.

Wealthy people who have remarried and who have children from previous relationships, need to understand how common these types of fight are. They then need to make estate plans with that in mind, if they hope to minimize the problems.

Reference: TMZ (May 16, 2017) "Alan Thicke Sons Go To War With His Wife To Protect the Estate." Estate Administration, Estate Litigation

May 22, 2017

Daughter Sues Mother for Wasting Her Inheritance

A case in New York is a good reminder that it is very important to make sure that trusts details are specific, in order to make the settlor's wishes crystal clear.

The story had a Hollywood beginning. A schoolteacher and a wealthy real estate investor met through a singles ad, fell in love, got married and had a child.

From that beginning, things quickly turned south.

According to court records filed by the child of that marriage, Elizabeth Marcus, her mother refused to sleep with her father after she was born. The two divorced after a few years and the father passed away, when Marcus was nine years old.

The father did not want his ex-wife to receive any of his assets and instead left half his estate in trust to Marcus. Another child from a previous marriage received the other half.

The trust was originally overseen by Citibank, but after fighting for several years, the mother took control of the trust in 2003, according to the Daily Mail in "Daughter sues her 'self-involved' mother for 'frittering away more than $13m of her inheritance – so she could buy cars and a $6m mansion next to Gwyneth Paltrow in the Hamptons'."

Marcus is suing her mother now, claiming that her mother has stolen her inheritance to buy expensive items for herself, including a mansion and fancy cars. Most of the original inheritance is now alleged to be gone.

The mother, of course, denies the accusations.

The missing piece of the puzzle from the reports is how the mother was able to gain control of the trust, if the father did not wish her to have it. He might have neglected to be clearer about his wishes in the trust documents. Profit Law Firm can help make your issues crystal clear in our documents.

Reference: Daily Mail (April 23, 2017) "Daughter sues her 'self-involved' mother for 'frittering away more than $13m of her inheritance – so she could buy cars and a $6m mansion next to Gwyneth Paltrow in the Hamptons'."

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Tag: Estate Litigation