Father Requires His Gay Son To Marry a Woman For His Child To Inherit

Robert Mandelbaum is a gay Manhattan Criminal Court judge.  His father, Frank Mandelbaum founded the ID-verification firm Intellicheck and recently died with a very large fortune.  In his will, Frank left behind a $180,000 trust for his grandchildren, but Robert’s 16-month old son, Cooper, may be excluded from those benefits unless Robert marries Cooper’s biological mother.

Frank knew his son was gay, but he still included a provision excluding “an adopted child of Robert, if adopted while Robert is a single person, or a biological child of Robert, if Robert shall not be married to the child’s mother within six months of the child’s birth.”  The provision ultimately excludes Cooper if Robert remains married to his partner Jonathan O’Donnell.  

Robert is challenging the will on the basis that in order to fulfill the conditions, he would have to enter into a sham marriage in violation of New York marriage-equality law.  The Manhattan Surrogate’s court has yet to approve a settlement.  

See Alyssa Newcomb, Gay Man Told to Marry Woman or Son Would Lose Inheritance, Yahoo!News, Aug. 20, 2012.  

Special thanks to Payson Lederman (Attorney, Law Offices of Payson Lederman) and Christopher Tozzo (Attorney, The Glenchrist Law Firm).