Sumner Redstone isn’t mentally impaired, just old, his lawyer told a judge in Massachusetts in arguing against a request by Viacom Inc. Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman to have the media mogul medically evaluated.
“The idea that he could suffer from mortal disease at any time -- you could say that about any elderly person,” Redstone’s lawyer Robert Kleiger said during a hearing Tuesday. “Neither his physical or mental condition are deteriorating.”
Dauman and Viacom director George Abrams sued last month after Redstone removed them from a trust that controls his $40 billion media empire. Lawyers for the men, who are seeking to be reinstated, urged a judge to hold a quick trial over their claims that the 93-year-old Redstone was mentally impaired when he made the decision to oust them and is being manipulated by his daughter Shari.
“Nobody can reasonably deny that Sumner Redstone will not be long available,” said Les Fagen, an attorney for Dauman and Abrams. “The question my clients ask, not out of self interest but out of fiduciary duty, they want to know whether the Sumner Redstone they knew would ever do this to his closest friends.”
Delayed Ruling
Probate Judge George Phelan said he would rule on the request for an expedited trial schedule at a later date.
“I have a lot to digest,” Phelan said at the end of the hearing. “I grew up in a housing project where I was lucky to have a quarter in my pocket so I’m trying to digest the concept of billion with a B.”
The dispute is being heard in state probate court in Canton, Massachusetts, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Boston in the county where the trust was created. It’s one of two courts on separate coasts being asked to decide the legal battle over Redstone’s mental capacity and his ability to make decisions even as the billionaire takes steps to reassert control over Viacom, the owner of MTV and Paramount Pictures.
In May, a judge in Los Angeles rejected a lawsuit filed by Redstone’s ex-girlfriend, Manuela Herzer, who had sought to have him declared incompetent and asked to be reinstated as his health-care guardian. Herzer’s lawyer Pierce O’Donnell filed paperwork to seek a new trial on June 1, the day Redstone’s granddaughter Keryn also hired him as she seeks to keep Shari from gaining control.
Dueling Lawsuits