Prince Estate Battle Rages On as Judge Declines to Dismiss Lawsuit Against Heirs
Rolling Stone link:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/prince-estate-lawsuit-heirs-llc-1235054438/
Archived (no paywall) link:
https://archive.ph/5NokW
OVER EIGHT YEARS after the death of Prince, and nearly two years after the lengthy legal battle over his estate appeared to come to an end, a lawsuit over control of half of his estate is heading to court.
In January, amid an 18-month litigation-free period for the estate, one-time Prince attorney L. Londell McMillan and Charles Spicer Jr., who together represented three of the singers six sibling heirs, filed a lawsuit against four members of Princes family including half-sister Sharon Nelson, who they previously represented in the estate battle over control of an LLC that was established in 2022 to handle the 50 percent stake it owned in Princes estate.
On Friday, a judge in Delaware where the McMillan and Spicer lawsuit was filed refused the heirs efforts to dismiss the lawsuit, presaging yet another legal battle over Princes estate; Prince died in April 2016 without a will, and his estate was divided up equally among his six siblings and half-siblings, two of whom have died over the course of the seemingly never-ending legal fight.
In the lawsuit, McMillan and Spicer argued that Sharon Nelson attempted to oust the pair from their managerial duties in Prince Legacy LLC, which was formed in 2022 after the IRS came to a $156 million valuation on Princes estate, a ruling that was anticipated to finally end the courtroom drama. It has been a long six years, McMillan said at the time of the 2022 decision.
- more at link -
A word of advice here - and I'm not a lawyer, but this is just common sense. If you have an estate worth $156 million, and no direct heir such as a wife or child - don't die without a will made up. Designate someone as your executor, usually it's a close sibling or other family member. When you don't, THIS is what happens... the lawyers step in, start all the squabbling and expensive lawsuits, and before you know it, they get it all.
Prince deserves a better legacy than this.