Estate of Denial:
1) Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s will bequeathed all his assets to the Communist Workers League. However as the will remained unwitnessed, all his assets reverted to his estranged father and brother leaving his long-time partner Eva Gabrielsson with nothing. She is refusing to hand over his final unpublished manuscript, which would be the fourth instalment in the best-selling Millenium saga.
CNN: The estate of the late actress Anna Nicole Smith has lost a Supreme Court appeal in a longstanding fight to secure a share of her deceased husband's fortune.
The 5-4 ruling Thursday was the latest chapter in a tedious legal soap opera, over the kind of evidence a separate bankruptcy court may hear when deciding various claims and counterclaims. State courts generally hear probate cases, while bankruptcy proceedings are confined to federal courts. The high court's 38-page decision will now likely put an end to this particular legal dispute.
Estate of Denial: A messy legal dispute over the publication rights to many of John Steinbeck’s famous works was denied further review by the Supreme Court, the justices announced Monday.
The legendary author’s only surviving son and sole grandchild filed notice seeking to regain control of the copyrights that had been signed away in 1938. But lower courts have ruled that the pair’s application is invalid because of an agreement Steinbeck’s third wife Elaine made 17 years ago.
Over the years, Congress has passed several laws allowing for artists or their heirs to assume control over copyrighted work decades after the fact. The laws were created as an acknowledgment that creative works often don’t realize their full commercial value until well after their initial publication.
The Probate Lawyer Blog: Legal controversy has surrounded the Estate of Michael Jackson ever since he died almost two years ago. Trial & Heirs did a year in review article last year; it’s almost time for year two. You can now add a new lawsuit — over $17.5 million worth of life insurance — to the list.
Concert promoter AEG Live took out the large life insurance policy over Michael Jackson in case he died and was unable to perform the “This Is It” concert tour. Of course, that’s exactly what happened, showing that AEG was smart to take that precaution. Reportedly, AEG spent some $20 to $25 million on the tour before the King of Pop’s death, and this insurance was supposed to protect that investment.
FOXNEWS: Brittney Spears' parents seek to prevent her from testifying in court. Although the article acknowledges Britney's improvement, it illustrates the significant restraints a conservatorship can place on one's life. Brittney's father has complete control over Britney's financial assets, and he can even prevent her from marrying her boyfriend. Estate of Denial has a good synopsis on the effects a conservatorship can have on one's life:
“Though the term conservatorship or guardianship can conjure an image of a nurturing, protective relationship, the status typically means that the conserved person (or ward) loses basic rights, such as the ability to sign contracts, vote, marry or divorce, buy or sell real estate, or make decisions about medical procedures.”
Jeff Conway, the actor who played Kenickie in Grease, fell into a coma on May, 11 and has been on life support ever since. His family wanted to end life support; however, his girlfriend claimed she had a medical power of attorney giving her control of the actor's healthcare decisions. From the Daily Mail:
“Grease star Jeff Conaway's family have decided to turn off his life support machine, according to reports…His ventilator was then set to be removed, until Vikki Lizzi contacted the hospital. ‘Vikki has the power of attorney and also has a living trust from 2007 that names her as a guarantor of the trust,' a source told Radar. ‘The hospital has assured the attorney they won’t do anything until they re-read the trust.'”
The Probate Lawyer Blog: Leona Helmsley, “The Queen of Mean,” had a soft spot in her heart for dogs. Helmsley died with an estate valued between four and five billion dollars. She directed the trustees of the trust to give a substantial portion of her estate to charities benefiting dogs such as the humane society. The article provides:
“Helmsley left most of the remainder of her billions to charity, specifically directing that her trustees were to use their discretion for what charitable purposes to benefit. But she also signed a Mission Statement that instructed the trustees to exercise that discretion first for “purposes related to the provision of care for dogs” and, only secondly, for “such other charitable activities as the Trustees shall determine.”
Barron's: Trustees commit the same mistakes when managing trust assets. These mistakes can subject the trustee to liability from the beneficiaries of the trust. This article lists five common mistakes made by trustees and provides tips on how trustees can avoid making these mistakes.
Arizona Republic: The Arizona Legislature approved two bills changing the way probate court operates. The Legislature hopes the new changes will prevent lawyers and and individual's managing the assets of of incapacitated individuals from charging excessive fees and depleting the assets of those incapacitated individuals. Supporters of the law expressed disappoint that the law failed to contain a provision requiring lawyers and asset managers to provide the probate court with a budget before being appointed by the probate court. However, a rule will most likely be enacted by the Arizona Supreme Court requiring those individuals who wish to serve in such a role to submit a budget to the probate court.
Estate of Denial: A Michigan industrialist, Wellington Burt, drafted his will preventing his family members from inheriting any of his estate for nearly 100 years. Burt, who died in 1919, drafted a will which provided that no distributions from the estate should occur until 21 years after the death of his last living grandchild. Burt's last living grandchild died in 1989, and the heirs have been battling since then to determine their respective share of the estate.
Arizona Republic: “When people incapable of caring for themselves or their money end up in Maricopa County Probate Court, judges turn to a list of contract lawyers who have been pre-screened to represent those clients. A Phoenix firm has handled hundreds of the cases, and some of its attorneys have raised their hourly rates on clients without notifying them in writing, court records show, an apparent violation of ethics rules that require such disclosure.”
Houston Chronicle: “The heir to an oil fortune is powerless as lawyers, trustees, judges and guardians determine his fate. For more than four decades, multimillionaire oil heir Ugo di Portanova has been all but powerless over his vast fortune. His three Mercedes-Benzes, his chartered plane trips, his yacht excursions and the rest of his spending are all controlled by a small militia of Harris County probate court guardians, financial trustees, lawyers and judges. Despite $65 million-plus in assets, di Portanova — described as one of the world's wealthiest ‘partially incapacitated' men — controls a single credit card that maxes out at $1,000 a month.”
Arizona Republic: “When Monsignor Edward Ryle died in December 2005, he left behind a reputation as “God's lobbyist” at the state Capitol, a modest estate and no will. . . . Ryle's case is an example of how probate cases can sometimes become far more expensive than families expect when they turn to attorneys and for-profit fiduciaries for help when a relative dies without leaving instructions about their assets.”
The Trust Advisor: “Dennis Hopper’s death left divorced wife Victoria Duffy in legal limbo and created big headaches for trustees. Trying to resolve the ambiguities is only making things worse. . . . this very improvisational approach to trust administration has exposed the $25 million the man left behind to a high-profile $45 million lawsuit and the threat of endless legal fees. . . . And that’s where the fight really got ugly.”
Examiner.com: “Four probate cases recently made news showing estate hijacking as a thriving activity with ‘proper estate planning' and estate size being no deterrent to the growing threat of Involuntary Redistribution of Assets (IRA) actions in which probate venues and/or probate instruments (wills, trusts, guardianships or powers of attorney) are used to loot assets of the dead, disabled and incapacitated. . . . the ‘up for grab' nature of property targeted via probate should be a great concern for all Americans.
Arizona Republic: “Even the lives of American royalty are not immune from being upended in Probate Court. Three cases in Maricopa County and California courts attest to the fact.”
Nothing illustrates the importance of preparing a proper will, trust and estate plan like the bad examples of the rich and infamous. This article explains the estate planning problems experienced by the loved ones of these famous folks:
New York Times: “the house Steinbeck called ‘my little fishing place,' about a mile out of town, is part of a long-running and bitter family estate battle, pitting the surviving sister of the author’s third wife, Elaine, against his oldest son and a granddaughter.”
The 15 year saga of the Estate of Anna Nicole Smith vs. the Estate of J. Howard Marshall continues. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal filed by Smith's estate after it lost an appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Anna's former billionaire husband died and left all of his estate to his son E. Pierce Marshall who died in 2006. Anna died in 2008. Despite the deaths of the three principal players in this long-running dispute, their estates are still duking it out in court.