Campbell Estate Includes Diamondbacks Stake

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

The estate of singer Glen Campbell includes a stake in the Arizona Diamondbacks, according to papers filed in Davidson Probate Court in Nashville, Tenn.
Disclosure of the interest came in an order approved Feb. 23 by Judge David Randy Kennedy. The order appoints Stanley Schneider, who served Campbell as an accountant and later as manager, as the temporary administrator of the singer's estate.
The order specifically bars Schneider from disposing of or encumbering Campbell's stake in the baseball club.
According to the five-page order Schneider's duties as administrator ad litem will be limited to making ""mandatory and lawful distributions and collecting proceeds."
The appointment comes as three of Campbell's children continue their battle to contest the will filed by Campbell's spouse Kimberly.
William Campbell filed a formal protest to the will and was joined by Wesley and Kelli Campbell in that effort. The will specifically bars the three from receiving anything from the estate.
In another order Kennedy ruled that the effort to contest the will cannot be decided until he holds a hearing to determine if the three children have legal standing to challenge the will.
The order states that a hearing on the standing issue will be held within 90 days.
Campbell's will does state that his other five children, Debra Cloy, Dillon, Nicklaus, Shannon and Ashley Campbell are beneficiaries along with Kimberly.
The value of the late singer's estate has been estimated at $50 million. Campbell, 81, died on Aug. 8 of last year following a long battle with Alzheimer's Disease.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com

Fred Thompson Estate Closed

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

The estate of actor/politician Fred Thompson has been officially closed and despite a public family feud few details of his assets, estimated in the millions, have become public.
The formal closing of the estate was approved in a three page order signed by Davidson Probate Judge David Randy Kennedy. In his order the Nashville, Tenn. judge waived any requirement for Jeri Thompson, the late senator's widow and executor of his estate, to file a detailed accounting of his estate.
Some details of the one time presidential candidate's assets were disclosed when a dispute arose over a bill submitted by the law firm that filed the original probate petition. Thompson died on Nov. 1, 2015.
The billing by the Waller Lansden Dortch and Davis disclosed that there was a last minute effort to marshal Thompson's assets and prepare an updated will. However, the will that was finally filed was over a decade old and did not include the couple's youngest two children.
That prompted the senator's two older sons by a previous marriage to charge that Thompson's assets might have been switched at a time when he was no longer capable of approving any changes.
Though Kennedy did order Jeri Thompson to disclose any last minute asset switches, any disclosures were never made public.
Jeri Thompson stated that the only change was an inconsequential switch in a secondary beneficiary on a life insurance policy.
The billings and the dispute with the two elder sons did offer some glimpses of the Thompson assets including a Florida condo.
The two elder sons dropped their claim and acknowledged receipt of the $50,000 each called for in the official will.
The Waller law firm's $14,550 claim was dropped under a settlement agreement never made public.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com

Unwanted Conservatorship Dissolved

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A woman placed in a court ordered conservatorship over her strong protests six months ago has finally succeeded in getting the order dissolved by the same judge who originally approved it.
In a three-page order issued this week in Davidson Probate Court in Nashville Tenn. Judge David "Randy" Kennedy dissolved the conservatorship of Reba Sherrill.
Sherrill said that at a recent hearing in her case, Kennedy told her he never wanted to see her in his courtroom again.
Sherrill, who doesn't even live in Davidson County, was placed in the conservatorship in August under a recently approved addition to the state conservatorship law affecting patients in medical facilities.  The provision allows hospitals to petition the court to appoint a temporary conservator to approve the patient's release or transfer.
Sherrill was a patient at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center when the petition was filed.
Lawyers for the hospital filed a petition in August of last year contending that she no longer needed acute hospital care but lacked the mental capacity to approve a transfer to an appropriate health care facility. She had originally been admitted for medical conditions.
Kennedy approved the petition and named one lawyer to act as Sherrill's temporary conservator with the power to transfer her to another facility and another lawyer to act as a guardian ad litem or fact finder.
Soon the bills began to pile up from the lawyers and the nursing home where Sherrill was placed over her continued protests. Kennedy also converted her conservatorship from temporary to permanent and ordered that the legal and other bills be paid from her assets.
Sherrill did succeed in getting her original conservator replaced with her brother but the conservatorship remained in place. Meanwhile Kennedy allowed Vanderbilt, the party that initiated the action, to exit the case.
Recently Sherrill filed motions to have the conservatorship dissolved or for her case to be transferred to Sumner County, where she owns a home.
It was that motion that prompted Kennedy to finally dissolve the conservatorship that she contends was never needed.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com

Thompson Estate Dispute Formally Ended

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

The dispute between the estate of the late Sen. Fred Thompson and a Nashville law firm has been formally ended but details of the settlement are not being disclosed.
Davidson Probate Judge David "Randy" Kennedy has signed an order dismissing the $14,550 claim filed by the law firm of Waller Lansden Dortch and Davis against the late actor's estate.
The order states that the law firm and Thompson's estate "have compromised and settled all claims and causes of action," adding that the $14,550 claim is "fully dismissed."
The dispute surfaced last year when the Waller law firm filed  a claim against the estate.  Included with the claim was a detailed accounting of work the law firm said it had performed in the weeks and months preceding Thompson's Nov. 1, 2015 death.
The billing statements detailed a last minute but futile effort to prepare a new will to replace one that had been prepared over a decade earlier. The older will omitted children born during the actor's second marriage to his widow Jeri Thompson.
Jeri Thompson subsequently challenged the Waller claim calling it "inappropriate, improper and not a valid claim."
Kennedy's order states that the dispute between the parties has been settled but does not disclose the terms.
The Waller firm's claim also triggered a dispute between the estate and Thompson's two oldest sons, who charged that estate assets might have been shifted in the effort to come up with a new will.
The two subsequently dropped the claim after Jeri Thompson was ordered to provide records of any last minute shift of assets.
Jeri Thompson had previously disclosed that the only change was an inconsequential one, changing the secondary beneficiary of a life insurance policy.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com





By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Disputes with two of his sons and a law firm over the estate of a former U.S. Senator and one time presidential candidate Fred Thompson have apparently been quietly settled, according to papers just filed in Probate Court in Nashville, Tenn.
Documents filed in the Davidson Probate Court case show the two sons, Fred D. Thompson 2nd and Daniel L. Thompson, have been paid $50,000 each, as set out in the will filed in the case.
In addition a $14,450 claim filed by the law firm of Waller Lansden Dortch and Davis also has been resolved the filings indicate.
The two sons had charged that Jeri Thompson, Thompson's widow and the executor of his estate may have made last minute shifts in his assets in the days and weeks leading up to his death on Nov. 1, 2015. They charged any changes would have come at a time when Fred Thompson was no longer competent.
They later dropped the claim after Jeri Thompson complied with a court order to disclose any last minute shifts in assets. She has publicly denied that any such changes occurred, stating that the only change was to a secondary beneficiary on an insurance policy.
The details of that disclosure, however, were never made public.
In the papers just filed the two sons acknowledge receipt of $50,000 each as spelled out in a will dated over a decade ago,
The filing states that the payments provide "full and complete satisfaction" of all claims and releases Jeri Thompson and the estate from any further liability.
An additional filing indicates the dispute between the estate and the Waller law firm also has been resolved.
 The docket states that the claim was being dismissed under an order agreed to by all parties.
Jeri Thompson had disputed a claim filed by the firm for work it had done in a last minute effort to draft a new will to include children of Thompson's second marriage. Those futile last minute efforts were included in the billing statements the Waller firm filed to back up its $14,000 claim against the estate.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com