Only one out of 10 wills is ever contested, but the odds of a fight increase dramatically as the net worth of the deceased does. It’s when the rich and famous are laid to rest, sometimes even before, that the monkey business begins. Families are torn apart, reputations are forever sullied and, regardless of the outcome, estate lawyers reap generous rewards. Even the most carefully crafted will is not guaranteed to head off greedy would-be benefactors. “A play is never finished,” American playwright Tony Kushner once wrote. “You’ll find out how much I mean that when you read my last will and testament.”
Here are our top 10 will contests and estate battles.
10. Ted Williams
Value of estate: N/A
Contested: Williams’s remains
Feuding parties: Three children
Still Planning His Comeback
Ted Williams’s last will says he wanted to be cremated and his ashes scattered at his favorite Florida Keys fishing spot. But his son and daughter from his third marriage presented a signed note on a scrap of paper, saying the baseball legend wanted his body to be frozen in the event one day science could bring him back to life. His daughter from his first marriage vigorously fought to have her father cremated, but eventually withdrew her lawsuit when a judge agreed that a $645,000 trust would be distributed equally among Williams’s three children. Today, his body and severed head remain in frozen vessels in Arizona.
9. Leona Helmsley
Value of estate: $5 billion
Contested: $12 million
Feuding parties: Trouble, her Maltese dog and two grandchildren
Rich Bitch
Shortly after hotel queen Leona Helmsley died in 2007, the headline read, “Rich Bitch.” It wasn’t a slur directed to Helmsley; it was an accurate description of her beloved Maltese named Trouble. Helmsley had left $12 million in her will to her lapdog and nothing to two of her grandchildren. In 2008, a Manhattan judge reduced the bequest to $2 million after the dog’s caretaker stated it would be enough to keep the dog in luxury for the rest of her life. The two grandchildren left out of the will were awarded $3 million each. Trouble died in 2011.
8. James Brown
Value of estate: $100 million
Contested: $50 million
Feuding parties: His wife, children and more
Living In America
The Godfather of Soul’s estate shows what can go wrong with charitable bequests. James Brown died in 2006 and has yet to be properly buried, because his estate is bogged down in lawsuits. Two sets of executors have been replaced, and millions of dollars have been paid to creditors, law firms and various vendors, but the trust he established for the education of needy children in Georgia and South Carolina has yet to pay out a dime.
Only one thing has been resolved: His wife and children, who were left nothing, challenged the will in 2009 and were awarded half of his estate.
7. Jimi Hendrix
Worth: $175 million
Contested: Licensing rights
Feuding parties: His brother and adopted sister
Castles Made of Sand
Jimi Hendrix died without a will at age 27 in 1970, leaving an estate most recently valued at $175 million to his father, Al Hendrix, who had taken over control of the guitarist’s estate. It’s when Al died in 2002 that the rancor began. The bulk of the Hendrix estate was left to Al’s adopted daughter Janie. Al’s son Leon, and Leon’s children sued, saying Janie had pressured Al to leave them out of his last will. After a three-month trial, a judge ruled against Leon and his children. A series of suits ensued, and today the Hendrix estate and Jimi’s brother are still sorting out those issues in the same court where their legal tussle began.
6. Brooke Astor
Value of estate: $198 million
Contested: Executor
Feuding parties: Son and grandson
That Lean And Hungry Look
Brooke Astor, a wealthy New York City socialite who died in 2007 at the age of 105, named her only son, Anthony D. Marshall, as the executor of her estate. In 2006, Marshall was accused by his son Philip of defrauding Astor in the late stages of her life and stealing millions of dollars from her. Anthony was subsequently found guilty of a number of fraud and conspiracy charges, as well as first degree grand larceny, and was sentenced to prison in 2009. It took two and a half years of negotiating after the criminal verdict was handed down for the parties to reach the global settlement in 2012.
5. J. Howard Marshall II
Worth: $1.6 billion ($300 million
contested)
Contested: $300 million
Feuding parties: Anna Nicole Smith and E. Pierce Marshall
Large Assets
He was 86; she was 23. They met in a Houston strip club. Less than three years later, they were married. Thirteen months later, he died. And that is the short story of J. Howard Marshall II, the oil tycoon, and Anna Nicole Smith, the Playboy Playmate. Smith claimed that Marshall had promised a share of his estate, but he had not put her in his will. Following his death, Smith began a 20-year legal battle with Marshall’s son, a fight that would outlive her. She would ultimately receive nothing. Smith died at age 39 from an overdose of prescription drugs.
4. J. Seward Johnson Sr.
Worth: $400 million
Winners: Barbara Piasecka, third wife
Losers: Depends on how you look at it.
Return to Bleak House
Attorneys for J. Seward Johnson, son of the Johnson & Johnson founder Robert Wood Johnson, executed 22 will changes over the last 12 years of his life, which coincided with the duration of his third and final marriage. His will left his entire estate to his third wife, Barbara Johnson, his former chambermaid, who was 42 years his junior. His six children contested the will, claiming he was mentally incompetent when he signed his last will in 1983. A settlement was reached mid-trial in 1986 between Barbara and the children: She kept $300 million and the children divided $42.5 million. Another $20 million went to charity, $10 million went to the children’s legal fees and $80 million went to pay taxes.
3. Jay Pritzker
Value of estate: $19 billion
Amount Contested: $6 billion
Feuding parties: Niece and nephew and 11 cousins
Barely Old Enough To Sue
Jay Pritzker and his brother Robert built their fortune largely with the Hyatt hotel chain, which they started in 1957. After Jay’s death in 1999, the once close-knit family was consumed by a torrent of anger, greed and betrayal, resulting in a $6 billion lawsuit by his niece Liesel when she was 19. She claimed her father Robert and 11 older cousins had misappropriated money from trusts established for her and her brother. Meanwhile, Jay’s son Tom Pritzker, who was chosen to head up the family businesses, came under fire from many cousins who wondered if more of the family’s money was coming his way than Jay or Robert had intended. Liesel and her brother received $280 million each after a 2005 settlement and were given more control over other trusts valued at about $170 million each. The rest of the $19 billion estate was divided among 11 of their cousins.
2. Howard Hughes
Worth: $2.5 billion
Feuding parties: 22 cousins, two ex-wives, a gas station owner, executives who worked for Hughes, among others
Nice Try, Melvin
Despite the best efforts of more than 200 lawyers, no will could be found after billionaire Howard Hughes died in 1976. But there was a handwritten document found on the desk of a Mormon Church official, which left $156 million to Melvin Dummar, a gas station owner whose account of giving Hughes a ride when he was stranded in the desert was used as the basis for the 1980 movie Melvin and Howard. A jury decided in 1978 that Hughes did not write the so-called “Mormon will.” With no other valid will to be found, the court awarded Hughes’s estate to his surviving relatives.
1. Nina Wang
Value of estate: $10.7 billion
Amount Contested: $10.7 billion
Feuding parties: Wang’s secret lover and her charitable trust
Isn’t Love Enough?
This is the biggest will contest no one has ever heard of, at least on this side of the Pacific. Nina Wang was the richest woman in Asia when she died in Hong Kong in 2007 with an estate worth $4.2 billion. The day after her funeral it was revealed there were two conflicting wills in play. One gave virtually all of her estate to charity and the other named her personal feng shui consultant Tony Chan as the sole beneficiary. After a lengthy and sensational court battle over her estate, the court ruled in 2010 that, while the court accepted Chan’s claim that he and Wang had been secret lovers, the will he presented bore a forged signature. The court upheld the other will, awarding Wang’s entire estate to the Chinachem Charitable Foundation. Chan was eventually arrested and in 2013 sentenced to 12 years in prison.