Judge decides Hughes heirs

Press, 16 November 1981, Page 8

Judge decides Hughes heirs

NZPA Houston More than five years of courtroom bickering over Howard Hughes’s immense fortune ended last week when a judge declared that the eccentric billionaire’s only legal heirs were a deceased aunt and 21 first cousins.

The amount of money they and their estates will receive, however will not be determined for years, because taxes will be claimed once the size of the Hughes estate is decided. It is estimated Hughes left, SNZ26OO million estate when he died five years , ago. Judge Pat Gregory took less than five minutes to sign the nine-page order that will give the 22 people the Hughes fortune after subtracting taxes and a gift of 25 per cent for charities. Officials from both Texas and California claim Hughes was legally a resident of their states. That fight is to be decided by the United States Supreme Court. “The biggest thing to settle is the tax question. To decide whether Texas or California can collect inheritance taxes. That could take three, four, maybe even five years to settle,” said Shelton Smith, a lawyer for the five paternal heirs, all of whom are first cousins to Hughes. The majority of the Hughes estate is stock in the Summa Corporation of Las

Vegas, Nevada, an umbrella company Hughes formed in 1972 to oversee his mining, ranching, and real-estate holdings. Judge Gregory ruled that Hughes left 17 maternal heirs — lE' first cousins and the aunt — and left no immediate relatives.

The order split the estate between the descendants of Hughes’s father and mother. Since there are far fewer paternal heirs, they stand to receive much more money. “Based on the findings, a jury’s verdict, and after hearing the evidence, the court finds, declares, and determines they are the heirs and only heirs of the estate of Howard Robard Hughes junior,” Judge Gregory said. Four of the heirs have died since the court proceedings began, and their shares of the fortune will go to their estates. The remainder of the first cousins range in age from 18 to 81. None was present at the final Rearing. Judge Gregory’s order came more than two months after a. jury denied estate claims by second, third, and fourth cousins from the father’s side. That group has 30 days to appeal, but their lawyers said no decision has been made whether to do so.

The Supreme Court also will decide if Hughes signed a “lost will” that left the fortune to a Florida-based medical institution he founded.