Estate Litigation and Trust Dispute in Probate Court regarding Dennis Hopper and his prenup.

As Probate Attorney Blog properly predicted and TMZ later in the day confirmed in their article Dennis Hopper Probate Battle Brewing then the New York Daily News Reported on today there will be a Trust Litigation fight in Probate Court upcoming with an aggressive estate dispute contesting the phrasing of what Victoria Hopper is entitled to pursuant to the prenup she had with the Easy Rider Actor who sadly died from cancer. Their article titled Dennis Hopper couldn't divorce his wife in time probate battle brewing.

It will be in probate court although given that probate only concerns the property that is in a decedents sole name without a designated beneficiary and it appears that Hopper had a funded trust a trust and estate dispute or trust and estate litigation in probate court may be more accurate description.

The trust estate dispute will center on the fact that in their prenup of the 41 year old Victoria and 74 year old actor it said in order for her to receive 25% of his estate she would need to be married to him which there will not be a dispute as he was not able to divorce in time and living together. They were not in fact living together and in fact he had a restraining order against her as there had been alegations she had tried to kill him. A judge had agreed that she was hindering his health and signed a restraining order against her from coming too close to him. However she is expected to argue that that is still satisfied given that she was living next door and at his home. She will likely also claim that they were not living together solely because of his illness and that it was his eldest daughter who had pressured him for the divorce when he lacked capacity and she had convinced him to seek a divorce he would not have otherwise sought.

Her argument about living at the home will be interesting as well given that the prenup done while he had capacity and agreed upon by both parties explicitly said that upon either party filing for divorce if they had a child she was required to move out within 60 days from the home and would get nothing. However for whatever the reason a judge had allowed her to remain at the home for the time being and had him continue to pay her $12,000 despite no agreement to do so as spousal maintenance and child support. Additionally had she been living with him and married to him she would receive a $250,000 life insurance policy if not it would pass to his children and/or other beneficiaries. There had already been a hearing re contesting whether or not that should be changed and no decision had been made.

It will be interesting to follow the trust dispute in probate court and updates will be reported here about the estate related litigation from this blog and a the ProbateAttorneyBlog.com