Football and Probate — The Estate of Austin E. “Dutch” Knowlton

The following is from Kimball Perry & Sharon Coolidge, Knowlton probate dispute continues, The Enquirer (Cincinnati, Ohio), Sept. 23, 2006:

A battle over the $300 million estate of one of the Cincinnati Bengals founders will proceed after an appeals court ruled Friday the estate’s executors didn’t have a conflict of interest.

The case involves some of the city’s richest, most powerful and best known residents fighting over what is believed to be Hamilton County’s largest probate case.

Allegations of wrongdoing – including falsification of documents and forgery – came from Austin E. “Dutch” Knowlton’s adult children, who were left out of their father’s will. * * *

At stake are 176 shares of the Cincinnati Bengals valued by experts at between $42 million and $350 million. * * *

Knowlton’s children can’t remove the executors from their father’s $300 million estate, according to a 1st District Court of Appeals decision written by Judge Mark Painter. * * *

After the 93-year-old Knowlton died in 2003, his children were astounded to find their father left them nothing. They contended Knowlton’s last will was forged.