(NY DAILY NEWS) A millionaire's family aims to thwart his twisted plan to protect his dough by adopting his 42 year old girlfriend.
The children of a Florida polo magnate are fighting his adoption of his 42-year-old girlfriend, arguing they were blindsided by the bizarre legal maneuver designed to combat a wrongful death lawsuit.
John Goodman's children, who live in Delaware, filed a lawsuit to kick their new "sibling" off of their trust account last week. The move comes just months after the millionaire added the woman in a move he said was to protect the trust fund from an unscrupulous management firm, the Palm Beach Post reported.
"I have never seen anything like this in my 31, 32 years practicing law," their attorney, Joseph Rebak, told the newspaper on Wednesday. "Obviously we think it's wrong and we are hoping to have it set aside."
Lawyers for Goodman said there was nothing nefarious about their intentions with the trust fund.
"Mr. Goodman has placed his trust in Ms. Hutchins to continue his vision and provide oversight, should he become unavailable to do so, for the growth and preservation of the Trust assets for the benefit of his two minor children," Goodman's lawyers said in a statement last month.
He added that 95 percent of the trust's assets will go to Goodman's biological children. The fund is reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
But attorneys for Lili and William Wilson, the parents of a 23-year-old killed two years ago in a car crash involving Goodman, say it's all just a legal ploy to protect his money from the damages a jury could award the victim's family.
A judge agreed and said the victim's family would be entitled to the 1/3 of the trust.
Goodman's trial on charges of DUI manslaughter and leaving the scene of the accident begins next month.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/john-goodman-children-protest-father-move-adopt-42-year-old-article-1.1019703#ixzz1luVjaGvv
TXT 24
Twitter
Facebook