June 7 The battle over control of Sumner Redstone’s $40 billion media empire moved to a MA courtroom on Tuesday, where a state judge is mulling whether to move up the date of a trial questioning the 93-year-old’s mental competence.
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Last month, Redstone removed Dauman and Abrams from the trust that would determine the future of CBS Corp CBS.N and Viacom after controlling shareholder Redstone, 93, dies or is declared mentally incapacitated. Dauman and Abrams’ suit questions Redstone’s mental competence and argue that Redstone is being manipulated by his child.
Meanwhile, Dauman and Abrams sought in a MA court to speed up their battle against being dismissed as trustees of Redstone’s National Amusements Trust, which controls National Amusements Inc.
“I lived in a housing project, so I am trying to grasp the concept of a billion, with a B”, Phelan said, referring to the massive estate in front of him.
Dauman, in legal papers, claims Redstone was, indeed, told of the intended Paramount stake sale.
Monday’s filing also defends Dauman’s previous statements from a November affidavit in another lawsuit of Redstone’s competency describing Sumner Redstone as “engaged” and “attentive”.
Phelan did say that he wants to see motions to dismiss by June 16.
A judge is expected to hear arguments on Dauman’s demand to speed up discovery and a trial on Tuesday.
The media mogul’s lawyers said that even if a court ruled that he was no longer of sound mental health, the majority on the trust nonetheless would remove Dauman.
“Mr. Redstone exercises daily and has gone on recent excursions to visit with his grandson and also with friends in Malibu”, said Gold. Sumner Redstone in May expressed opposition to selling Paramount. National Amusements, a theater chain, is controlled by the Redstones.
Redstone filed his own lawsuit in Los Angeles seeking court approval of his decision to fire Dauman and Abrams.
Redstone holds 80 percent of the voting shares in Viacom and CBS through his National Amusements Inc holding company.
An attorney for Dauman and Abrams, Les Fagen, said Redstone is being heard only through carefully crafted remarks distributed by his advisers.
Gold, who said he has treated Redstone since March 2013, added that the mogul continues to have the ability to make his own medical decisions.
As an example of Redstone’s lucidity, attorney Klieger recounted a meeting at the magnate’s home earlier this year in which Redstone asked him to deliver to Viacom executives a message telling them not to sell off Paramount.
Shari Redstone has denied that claim and insists that she has no intention of taking over her father’s company.
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Attorneys for Dauman and Abramspresented a dire picture of Redstone’s condition, in which he requires a feeding tube and suffers cognitive impairment, at one point suggesting that he was “hanging on to life by a thread”.
