In late March, I posted a blog about the estate of Melvin Simon, the shopping mall developer and owner of the Indiana Pacers who died in 2009. With an estate worth over two billion dollars, he was one of our country’s wealthiest men.

His estate is involved in a nasty probate dispute. On the one hand you have his second wife, Bren, and on the other hand, you have the children of his prior marriage. It makes for an interesting battle in the probate court.

In California, we frequently have probate disputes that involve famous people and especially in the probate department of the Los Angeles Superior Court you can often listen to disputes that involve people who many know about because of television, movies, or music.

In the Simon case, Mr. Simon’s daughter has sued her stepmother alleging fraud. The most recent filing includes some pretty nasty claims and if they were true would go a long way to invalidating Mr. Simon’s final estate planning documents.

Most of the allegations have probably been seen in other cases by the probate judge. It is just that this time the amounts involved are larger!

The moral of the story – not sure if this one has a new moral. If the allegations are true, these types of issues will arise forever as there will always be people engaging in undue influence and fraud over others. As frequently occurs, it is the attorneys who end up with a windfall.