Treated Like a Dog?
You may remember the surprising news that the late Leona Helmsley left a $12 million bequest in her will for her Maltese dog named Trouble. With the large bequest, Helmsley’s will provided that Trouble would continue to enjoy the same opulent life even after Helmsley’s passing. In addition to the money, Helmsely’s will also provided that Trouble would be buried next to Helmsley in the family mausoleum. Helmsely’s will also set aside an additional $3 million for cleaning and maintenance of the mausoleum. With the $12 million gift, Trouble was apparently the recipient of one of the largest single individual trusts from Helmsley’s fortune, estimated to be worth $4 billion.
Now it appears that poor Trouble will not receive the entire gift and have to survive on a mere $2 million. Helmsley’s grandchildren alleged that Helmsley was not mentally competent when she signed the 2005 will which left the large bequest to Trouble. According to this article in the New York Post, a Manhattan judge approved an agreement to reduce Trouble’s inheritance from $12 million to $2 million. Under the new deal, $10 million of Trouble’s bequest will go to Helmsley’s large charitable foundation.
It seems only appropriate that Leona Helmsley, dubbed by some as the “Queen of Mean” would have an equally controversial animal. According to a former housekeeper, Trouble slept in Helmsley’s bed and was fed chef-prepared meals in porcelain bowls and silver trays. This same housekeeper actually sued Helmsley for nerve damage she allegedly suffered after being repeatedly bitten by the animal. Trouble’s care taker estimated Trouble’s annual expenses at $190,000 including an estimated $100,000 for the dog’s security squad (which was apparently warranted because of the alleged death threats against Trouble). Given that Trouble is already nine years old, Trouble’s trustees did not oppose the settlement, apparently believing $2 million was adequate for Trouble’s care.
The Never Ending Will Contest
With a narrative that was sufficiently compelling to inspire a Hollywood movie, Melvin Dummar has returned and launched yet another legal challenge designed to obtain a portion of the estate of the late Howard Hughes. Dummar’s claim to a portion of the Hughes estate rests on his tale of being a Good Samaritan when he rescued a wandering Hughes from the Nevada desert in 1967.
Dummar, at the time a Utah service station owner, claimed that he picked up Howard Hughes along a desolate desert highway approximately 150 miles north of Las Vegas, Nevada. Hughes allegedly asked Dummar to take him to the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas and during the trip, Hughes revealed his identify to Dummar. After Hughes death, a handwritten will was discovered at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (“LDS”) in Salt Lake City. The new will (commonly referred to as the “Mormon Will”) was allegedly prepared in 1968 and had a number of strange discrepancies including the fact that it left money to the LDS (Hughes had never been a member), named a dismissed former employee as executor and referred to Hughes’ famous flying boat by the term “spruce goose”, a moniker Hughes allegedly despised. Most importantly for Dummar, the Mormon Will left 1/16th of Hughes’ estate to Dummar. In June 1978, after a lengthy trial, the Mormon Will was ruled a forgery by a Nevada jury and Dummar received nothing from the Hughes estate.
In early 2005, a retired FBI agent claimed to have found new evidence that Dummar’s story was true. On June 12, 2006, Dummar filed another suit in Utah against the primary beneficiary of the Hughes estate, alleging that the defendants had conspired to defraud Dummar by concealing evidence and presenting perjured testimony in the prior trial. On January 9, 2007, Dummar’s second suit was dismissed.
Almost ten years after his initial defeat, Dummar is back again this time having filed a new lawsuit in a Denver court attempting to revive his claim that some of the beneficiaries of the Hughes estate conspired to deprive him of his inheritance. Dummar, now working as a delivery man, claims to have a new witness: a former Hughes’ employee who allegedly corroborates critical details as to why Hughes would have been lost in the desert in 1967.
The Denver court is expected to rule later this year as to whether Dummar should have a new trial on the issue. In the meantime, rumor is that Hollywood producers are considering a sequel: Melvin and Howard part deux.
