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.
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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.
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