There are a few villains. There’s a suicide. In the end, after it’s all resolved, there is a tragedy a year later, the second wife dies, falling from a balcony in the mansion she shared with my dad. The suspicious circumstances include a jilted lover (who was taking her to New Orleans while my dad was struggling with brain cancer), bruised and skinned knees, and a balcony railing so high that you’d have to climb on a chair to jump off. I sent an anonymous tip to the local newspaper and the police department.
This next part is going to sound crazy. Here’s how “good old boy” law works in Texas. Still, I’ll see if I can keep it simple.
Draft outline of my John Grisham novel: “The Texas Good ‘ol Boy Network”
- Father dies with net wealth in the 10 – 15 million dollar range
- Survivors include his natural children by his first wife, a single adopted child of his second wife, and his second wife, known as SAM.
- Kids (that’s me, my brother, and two sisters) seek legal counsel knowing that SAM is going to be adversarial about everything.
- First law firm tells us, “You should each clear a million dollars.” SAM revs up the largest legal firm in Austin. We go uptown and retain a more experienced firm with an estate expert, Danny I, the “best in the state.”
- The estate hires a third law firm to protect all of us from malfeasance.
- The independent executor – disburses most of the cash to the widow and some of it to us, his natural children. Then, “oh my goodness” he does not have the cash to pay the taxes.
- Firesales all around, properties are sold to his friends, to get the cash to pay the taxes.
- We request that Mr. I and his firm sue the independent executor. In that meeting, the children ask, “Is there a conflict of interest?” Mr. I is incensed. “We don’t have a conflict of interest. Sharon, check for a conflict of interest.”
- Days later, the law firm, which has been compensated from the children’s proceeds ($500,000 at this point) claims they do in fact have a conflict of interest. Seems they represented Mr. G in an earlier matter, setting up the estates and trusts of his own kids.
- We the kids are forced to seek legal representation to sue the first law firm.
- That law firm hires another huge local law firm.
- At this point, we can’t afford another big firm. We go with D and D a small shop, who agrees to take the case on costs-plus-contingency. This is David vs Goliath. We are suing one of the biggest law firms, and their best person in estate law, about estate law.
- We children win, setting a precedent for future “independent executor” removals.
- At this point, my dad’s been dead for five years, mind you, the firm uses that “gross mismanagement” and “gross negligence” ruling to sue Mr. I and the first law firm for breach of duty over 4 years of representing the children.
- On the first day, in pretrial hearings, my mom suffers a nervous breakdown. “I can not do it. I won’t survive.”
- We are forced to drop the case.
- Nine months later, we file a claim with the Texas Bar Association for the breach of duty of Mr. I and the firm. They ruled there was no wrongdoing. Go figure.
Rod, the suspected boyfriend had vanished only to reappear years later to begin courting SAM’s daughter, who obviously got her mom’s half of the estate and her portion (1/5) of the kid’s disbursements. He too bit the big one shortly thereafter, under unusual circumstances.
After it all, now 40+ years later, I can see the dance of charlatans and jesters around my father and his massive wealth. The wife, the grifter, the real estate partner, and ultimately the Independent Executor for my father’s estate. If you good my last name you’ll find the precedent for the removal of an independent executor in Texas. It’s us.
Of course, we ended up losing everything over the course of six or seven years. I’m not saying I’m poor or even saying “poor me.” More, I’m asking the question, “How is the legal system so corrupted by money and good ‘ol boy backroom deals? It makes you laugh, doesn’t it? My naivete.
So, dad dies, ex-wife vindictively unloads all of his personal effects and massive gun collection to keep any of the gold from passing to his kids. I didn’t care about the Rolex. I wanted a few monogrammed shirts. A cufflink. I got zip. My brother got a Mercedes 450- SL and a Jensen Interceptor III.
The trauma and stress of the legal fight left me wounded and struggling. For my wife, several years later, do sue me for divorce, well, fuck you. She knew exactly what she was doing. Daddy gave her the green light to “go for it.”
Though she doesn’t play a big part in this book, my first ex-wife is part of my distrust of marriage, lawyers, and flamboyantly good-looking women. Don’t trust ’em. But that’s my problem.
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