Justice For James Brown’s Estate

As I have previously discussed, the legal battle over the estate of James Brown ended in settlement, with 50% of estate going to his charitable trust, 25% going to his widow Tomi Rae Hynie, and the other 25% to his heirs. On appeal, the Supreme Court of South Carolina in Wilson v. Dallas has overruled the settlement agreement, arguing that deal that was reached completely ignores the intent of the late-singer. Here, the court also ruled that it was clear that Brown was of sound mind when he drafted his will. As a result, the court remanded the case to the lower courts for reconsideration. The court did agree with the decision of the lower court to remove the original trustees of Brown’s estate.

In particular, the justices of the court did not agree with the actions of Attorney General Henry McMaster. The justices argued that if the actions of the Attorney General were to stand, this could discourage people from donating money to charity through testamentary gifts mostly out of fear that their wishes could just be discarded. In this case, the Attorney General orchestrated a compromise among the parties that disregarded the wishes of James Brown. James had originally wanted the vast majority of his estate to go into a charitable trust for the education of needy children. The compromise, which I stated above, gave large portions of Brown’s estate to people he never intended to give to, such as his self-proclaimed widow.

See Meg Kinnard, James Brown Estate: South Carolina Supreme Court Nixes Settlement, The Huffington Post, Feb. 27, 2013.

Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention