A Los Angeles judge yesterday dismissed a high-stakes lawsuit that challenged the mental competency of ailing media mogul Sumner Redstone and gave salacious details about his private life.
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Redstone’s lawyers countered that Herzer brought the lawsuit out of greed – attempting to prove the mogul was not competent at a time when he removed her from his estate plan. O’Donnell has said Redstone was generous toward Herzer and paid her tens of millions of dollars over the years. Herzer’s lawyers contend Redstone’s daughter, Shari, manipulated her father and his nursing staff to engineer Herzer’s ouster. His testimony was taken Thursday at his home, with questions posed by one of his lawyers, Gabrielle Vidal, and O’Donnell. That bequest would have come on top of $70 million in cash and assets that Herzer, 52, previously received over.
Though Redstone had some problems speaking and swallowing, he was clear about his intentions, Cowan found.
Redstone stepped down in February as executive chairman of CBS.
“Mr. Redstone’s testimony was strong”, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David J. Cowan said near the end of the first day of the trial.
“Redstone is presumed to have capacity and Herzer’s expert did not establish that he lacked capacity to change his agent”, the judge wrote. Plaintiff Manuela Herzer’s attorneys said they will appeal the probate court’s ruling and filed the civil complaint that will continue a legal battle that has caused jitters on Wall Street, captivated Hollywood and sown doubt over who controls the media mogul’s $42 billion empire.
Herzer argued in her lawsuit that Shari Redstone and the nurses attending the senior Redstone had conspired against her. Herzer’s lawyer, Pierce O’Donnell, said she had already filed a lawsuit claiming more than $100 million from Shari and Redstone’s nurses, accusing them of interfering with her expected inheritance. Redstone said in a profanity-laced deposition that he wanted his daughter, Shari, to make medical decisions for him if he is incapacitated and that he no longer wanted former girlfriend Manuela Herzer in his life.
However, Redstone’s testimony has ultimately defeated her case.
Herzer filed a petition in November to have Redstone declared incompetent and have herself reinstated as his health-care proxy.
A Muslim high school student says she’s saddened and hurt after being identified in her California high school’s yearbook as “Isis Phillips”.
Another witness Friday, Stephen Read, a psychiatrist hired by Herzer to examine Redstone, told the judge that Redstone displays symptoms of dementia.
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Klieger said Redstone has trouble communicating but no difficulty comprehending what’s going on around him. She alleges the daughter had set up a “spy network” using her father’s nurses to help her dislodge Herzer from Sumner Redstone’s life.
