From the Palm Beach Daily News: Jimmy Buffett lawsuits: Icon’s widow files counterclaim in battle over $275 million estate
- A new filing in the battle for control of late singer Jimmy Buffett’s $275 million estate claims a financial manager is retaliating against the music icon’s widow.
- Jane Buffett asked Richard Mozenter to resign or be removed, and he filed a lawsuit in response, her attorneys claimed.
- Jimmy Buffett was a longtime part-time Palm Beach resident and singer-songwriter who built a major global brand from his song “Margaritaville.”
Jimmy Buffett’s widow has filed the latest salvo in a legal battle with the music icon’s financial manager for control of the late singer’s $275 million estate.
Attorneys for Jane Buffett on July 21 filed a counterclaim in Palm Beach County Circuit Court in response to a suit from Richard Mozenter, one of a pair of previously filed dueling lawsuits on opposite coasts — his in Palm Beach County on June 2, hers in Los Angeles the following day. Each claimed mismanagement and sought to oust the other as a co-trustee of the massive marital trust left to Jane Buffett by her singer-songwriter husband after his death on Sept. 1, 2023, at age 76.
Jane Buffett’s attorneys said Mozenter’s lawsuit was done in retaliation after Buffett told him that she wanted him to resign or she would begin the legal process to remove him as co-trustee, according to the filing.
The court battle has put the spotlight on the Margaritaville brand built by longtime part-time Palm Beach resident Buffett on his hit song of the same name. Margaritaville has grown to include resorts, housing developments, clothing, restaurants and a cruise line that sails out of the Port of Palm Beach.
While Los Angeles court records show Mozenter has not replied to Buffett’s lawsuit in that venue, Jane Buffett’s counterclaim to Mozenter’s suit largely reiterates her claims from the California complaint, where she said Mozenter has been “plainly deficient” as a trustee.
In the July 21 filing in Palm Beach County, Buffett’s attorneys said Mozenter “failed to administer the Marital Trust in good faith and in the interests of Mrs. Buffett as the sole current beneficiary.” She accused Mozenter of failing to provide basic information about the trust’s assets and investments while taking “unreasonable fees and costs.”
“Jane will not play into Mr. Mozenter’s hands by litigating this dispute in two separate courts across the country, which would drain the very trust money that Jimmy specifically set aside for her care,” her attorney Matt Porpora told USA TODAY in a July 21 statement.
Read the full article at the Palm Beach Daily News