Viacom’s Sumner Redstone in 2014. Photo via jewishbusinessnews.com
Attorneys for a female former companion of Sumner Redstone filed new court papers in support of her claim to about $70 million in cash and real estate that she alleges the former media mogul promised her.
Manuela Herzer’s petition was brought Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. The filing was in response to an April 21 ruling by Judge Robert Hess that Herzer’s inheritance claim — which originally was part of her lawsuit against Redstone’s daughter, Shari Redstone — should have been brought in probate court.
Herzer was a longtime friend of Redstone, now 94, and she formerly lived at his Beverly Park mansion. Her petition asks that an amendment to the Redstone trust that eliminated her as a beneficiary be invalidated. The October 2015 revision by Redstone deprived Herzer of her claims to $50 million in cash and to his mansion, which is valued at $20 million.
Redstone also removed Herzer from his charitable foundation, which is largely devoted to advancements in cancer treatment and burn recover, her court papers state. Herzer was “significantly involved” in the foundation, her petition states.
The petition alleges Shari Redstone was behind the changes in the trust.
“Through deceit, treachery, lying, spying, an unlawful eviction, and bribery, Shari had accomplished her objective to influence Sumner,” the petition alleges. “Herzer was forever banished from Sumner’s home life, and personal trust, and Shari had removed the last impediment to controlling her weak and easily confused father.”
Redstone kicked another former girlfriend, Sydney Holland, out of his home in September 2015 after accusing her of cheating on him. A month later, he evicted Herzer, amended his trust and revoked her ability to make health care decisions on his behalf.
Herzer later filed a petition asking a judge to find that Redstone lacked the mental capacity to remove her as his health care agent, but her case was dismissed in May 2016 after one day of trial testimony. She then filed her lawsuit against Shari Redstone and the defendant’s son, Tyler Korff. The remaining claims allege violation of privacy.
“With Herzer gone … Shari and her children descended on Sumner’s Beverly Park mansion and undertook to brainwash Sumner about how evil and disloyal Herzer was,” Herzer’s new petition states.
Shari Redstone and her offspring removed all photos of Herzer and her family and Redstone’s nursing staff members had to sign loyalty oaths promising not to speak to Sumner Redstone about Herzer or communicate with Herzer, the new petition states.
“The tragedy of Sumner’s remaining time is that he is not able to be with Herzer, the love of his live whose devotion to him was unfailing,” the new petition states. “Instead, he is a captive of a daughter whom he loathed and a nursing staff who betrayed him.”
A hearing on the new Herzer petition is scheduled Aug. 8.
—City News Service
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