Orange County Register:  “Late Newport Beach resident Joey Bishop's live-in companion, who was with him for his final eight years, won a round in her lawsuit against the comedian's former lawyers after a judge ruled that one of the attorneys cannot countersue her on allegations of financial elder abuse.  Reversing the tentative decision he issued Jan. 12 in favor of attorney Ed Gregory Hookstratten's motion, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ralph W. Dau ruled instead in favor of Nora Garibotti, the plaintiff in the case who argued that any countersuit should have been filed earlier.”

IndyStar.com:  “Bren Simon says her late husband and billionaire shopping-mall magnate Melvin Simon changed his will in part to prevent his three children from having a say over their stepmother's personal finances after he died.  The allegation of distrust within one of Indiana's most well-known and moneyed families comes in a 24-page court document Bren Simon filed Wednesday, vehemently denying a stepdaughter's complaint that she coerced her gravely ill husband to change his will to reduce the amount of money his children would inherit.”

The New York Observer:  “Neil Bender, Greenwich Village's largest private landlord, caretaker of and disputed heir to the William Gottlieb real estate empire-which includes more than 100 individual properties in what has become one of the most valuable residential neighborhoods in New York City-is a reclusive, 54-year-old Springsteen fan with a thick shock of silver hair that he's wont to run his fingers through, a limp handshake, a stocky build, an affection for old cars, and a stable of critics that includes his tenants, his late Uncle Billy's old friends, his sister and nephew and his former osteopath.  “If Billy heard and found out all the things that were going on right now, he'd find it very deplorable,” said Michael Corbett, Mr. Bender's nephew and Gottlieb's grandnephew, who is now in an extended legal fight with his uncle to reclaim what he considers partly his inheritance.”

The Probate Lawyer Blog:  “CNN's Fortune Magazine recently had a fascinating article about Ron Perelman's efforts to drag his paralyzed, infirm, and elderly ex-father-in-law through one of the most vicious estate battles we've seen in a while.  Perelman built most of his billion-dollar fortune through a hostile takeover of Revlon. In the process, he married and divorced four women, one of whom was Claudia Cohen (actress Ellen Barkin was another). Cohen came from a wealthy family herself. Her father and brother own and control Hudson Media, a powerful magazine company that is a long-time partner of Time, Inc.”

London Evening Standard:  “The squalor in which the 30-year-old pharmaceuticals heiress Casey Johnson spent the final days of her life was very different from the splendour in which she had been raised.  According to reports, the rented Mulholland Drive mansion in Los Angeles where Casey's dead body was discovered by a housekeeper had no water, electricity or gas; dirty dishes were piled in the kitchen and the pool was a rat-infested swamp.  By contrast, when Casey was three years old her family moved from Florida to a five-bedroom apartment on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, where nannies, butlers and chefs busied themselves around the gilded Johnson progeny.”

Daily Pilot:  ‘The California Supreme Court this week rejected a Jewish organization’s appeal against the estate of Joey Bishop, the late entertainer and member of the ‘Rat Pack.'  But the legal battle over his fortune isn’t over yet, an attorney for the Newport Beach Chabad Center said Friday.   The center filed several lawsuits and claims against Bishop’s estate, alleging that the entertainer’s advisors and live-in caretaker blocked his final wishes to have part of his estate go toward setting up a charity for special-needs children in Orange County.  A longtime resident of Newport Beach, Bishop died Oct. 17, 2007, at his Lido Isle home at the age of 89.”

Vanity Fair:  “On receiving an estimated $2 billion inheritance after the death of her father, legendary Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli, in 2003, Margherita Agnelli de Pahlen asked for a full accounting of his vast estate.  She claims she never got it.  Five years later, de Pahlen is a dynastic outcast and has rocked the family empire—now run by her 32-year-old son, John Elkann—with a lawsuit against her father’s three longtime consiglieri.  Hearing both sides, the author reports on a search for truth, a battle for control, and the possibility of a hidden Agnelli fortune.”

The Probate Lawyer Blog:  “Whitney Houston is no stranger to family fights in court.  In 2002, the entertainment company owned by her father, John Houston, sued her. John Houston said publicly that his company was owed $100 million and he expected his daughter to repay it.  He died in February of 2003, and the case was dismissed not long thereafter. Reportedly, Whitney Houston did not attend her father’s funeral service or burial.”

Newobserver.com:  “A bitter estate battle over the company that makes Johnston County's trademark fire-engine red hot dogs troubles the faithful leaving Cricket Grill with grease-stained paper bags stuffed with their lunchtime favorite.  Every week, Cricket sells thousands of Bright Leaf dogs — made for decades just a few miles down the road at Carolina Packers.  The dispute over the estate of John ‘Buck' Jones, the majority shareholder and president of Carolina Packers, centers on who will control this home-grown culinary institution — the widow Jones named as his sole heir just before he died or the three longtime employees who friends say in court documents Jones hoped would run the company.”

Fortune:  “When the Revlon chairman sued his ex-father-in-law Robert Cohen and his ex-brother-in-law James Cohen in 2008, hardly anyone batted an eyelash.  Robert Cohen is the father of Perelman's late ex-wife, the society journalist Claudia Cohen. Perelman's suit sought to wrest control of half of Robert Cohen's fortune and bestow it on Samantha Perelman, the daughter he had with Claudia Cohen — even though Samantha is one of six grandchildren who are descendants of Robert. Perelman argued that, as executor of Claudia's estate, he had a duty to sue, because decades ago Robert had promised the money to Claudia.  Even by modern standards of dysfunctional-family estate battles — think of the Astor clan — this one was a lulu.”