Jury choice set to resume in NY heiress will trial

Kansas City Star

- ‎Sep 20, 2013‎

NEW YORK - A dispute over the estate of a hospital-dwelling heiress to a Gilded Age fortune is back on course for jury selection, though the judge overseeing the case left open the possibility Friday that a settlement could be reached before trial.

Tentative Agreement Over Heiress Clark's WillWebProNews

Possible Settlement Over Huguette Clark's $300 Million FortuneGothamist - by Jen Chung

Possible Settlement Over Huguette Clark's $300 Million Fortune

A photograph of Huguette Clark from 1930

This past week, jury selection began in the trial over the $300 million fortune of reclusive heiress Huguette Clark. The doll aficionado who owned a 42-room apartment but lived the last decades of her life at Beth Israel Hospital had cut out distant relatives in a second will, which gave the money to charity, lawyers and employees, like her nurse who got a huge $31 million windfall. Naturally, the relatives did not like that will and had been trying to get the second version overturned. But the trial may not happen, because the two sides have a tentative agreement to settle the dispute. According to NBC News investigative reporter Bill Dedman, who has written a book about Clark, the deal "would give more than $30 million to her relatives, most of whom never met her. The deal would give nothing to her longtime nurse, who would have to pay back $5 million of the $31 million that she already received in gifts while Clark lived." Additionally, Clark's attorney and accountant would get nothing and not be executors of the will (which is worth millions), but the attorney's attorneys will get "$11.5 million in fees for representing the will, on top of about $2 million already paid."
Nineteen relatives—grandnieces and grandnephews, great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews—who had argued the second will was product of fraud will get $34.5 million. In the second will, Clark had referred to these distant kin as by stating “I intentionally make no provision in this my Last Will Testament for any members of my family, whether on my paternal or maternal side, having had minimal contacts with them over the years. The persons and institution named herein as beneficiaries of my Estate are the true objects of my bounty.”
The NY Times reports, "After several attempts to settle the case failed, jury selection began on Thursday, focusing on whether jurors had heard of the case — many had — and whether they were willing to sit for a six- to eight-week trial. Many were not. But the selection ended abruptly, after about two hours, and settlement talks began again."
A foundation named ageter Clark's $85 million California estate, Bellosguardo, would be formed. Deman reports, "This would be a New York foundation and its board of trustees would be organized by the attorney general's office. The Clark relatives would get one seat on the board, and the Santa Barbara community would also get seats." NY AG Eric Schneiderman's office has been involved in settlement talks.

  end quote from:

Jury choice set to resume in NY heiress will trial