Celebrity Estate Lessons - Haroldson Lafayette Hunt Jr.

Haroldson Lafayette Hunt Jr. was a bigamist, one of the richest men in America, and was once implicated in the Kennedy assassination.

In 1912, at the age of 23, he was running a cotton plantation in Arkansas. A prolific gambler, he used his earnings to purchase his first oil field in Arkansas. He went on to buy what was, at the time, the largest oil deposit in the world. At the time of his death in 1974, his estate was valued between two and three billion dollars.

The first lawsuit was filed a mere four years later in 1978 by his second wife, Frania. She sued for half of his earnings as well as money made from the management of cash under his control during their marriage. They were married in Florida in 1925 and everything was fine until 1934 when she discovered a small problem, namely that Hunt was still married to his first wife, Lyda. The suit was dismissed.

The more well known lawsuit started in 2007, shortly after Hunt's daughter and eldest child, Margaret Hunt Hill, passed. Her son, Al Hill Jr. signed over his portion of her Trust to his children, including Al Hill III. When Hunt III requested an accounting, his father disinherited him. Hill III promptly sued his father, sisters, and aunts, accusing them of conspiring to steal from the family trusts and evade taxes.

In 2010, the suit was supposed to end when Hill III agreed to a nine figure settlement in return for agreeing to never contest his father's Will again. So obviously, when his father died in 2017, a lawsuit was promptly filed. The appellate court ultimately upheld the lower court's findings that Hill III was not able to contest his father's wishes.

In some families, it may seem that a Will contest is inevitable. Especially in these cases, it's important to have language in place that will ensure your wishes are carried out. Luckily, we can help you out with that. To learn more, Harrison Estate Law, P.A.