Gettys settle feud over a few billion

Press, 1 June 1985, Page 10

Gettys settle feud over a few billion

NZPA-Reuter Los Angeles The feuding Getty oil family, whose court battles have been described as a sequel to the “Dallas” television series, found yesterday that they could agree on one thing — how to share SUS 4 billion ($9.18 billion). Before a battery of lawyers representing the 26 living Getty, heirs, Superior Court Judge Richard Byrne signed a conditional settlement that will .allow the fortune, at present in a single trust controlled by Gordon Getty, to be divided into four smaller trusts, each to be headed by family members. The trusts will each have about SUS7SO million ($1738.58 million). Gordon Getty, an amateur composer and operatic benefactor once castigated by his father, the late billionaire, Paul Getty, for being immature about the oil business, will give up his

role as sole trustee. “The agreement is fair,' just and reasonable to all parties,” Judge Byrne said. The last hold-out among the lawyers, Seth Hufstedler, who represented Tara Getty, aged 17, a nephew of Gordon Getty’s, changed his mind yesterday and said he had decided that the settlement would help promote family harmony. The original trust fund was established in 1934 by Paul Getty, who had a paytelephone installed in his British home and who once sued his mother. Under yesterday’s settlement Gordon Getty, aged 51, and his brother, Eugene, aged 52, will each oversee one of the $1147.50 million trusts. A third will be shared by the three daughters of Paul Getty’s third son, George, who died in 1973. The fourth trust will be subdivided into three parts

for Paul Getty’s fourth son, Ronald, who said in court in January, 1984, that the family trust had allowed him only SUS3OOO ($6954.30) a year while making his brothers multi-millionaires. The remaining SUSI billion ($2.32 billion) has been set aside to pay taxes. The struggle over who should control the fortune began in 1983 when Tara Getty, represented by Mr Hufstedler, petitioned to have a corporation appointed as a co-trustee with Gordon Getty. George Getty’s three daughters, Caroline, Claire and Anne, then sued to have Gordon Getty, their uncle, removed as a trustee, alleging that he had disclosed confidential information to third parties. Yesterday’s conditional settlement — the conditions were not revealed — will end these disputes, as well as a battle over who should pay the taxes.