Wilson v. Dallas

James Brown, the singer and entertainer, died in 2006 leaving an estate estimated at between $5 million and over $100 million. His will devised his personal and household effects to his six adult children and left the remainder, through a pour-over provision, to The James Brown 2000 Irrevocable Trust, which funded a subtrust for his grandchildren (capped at $2 million) and a much larger charitable subtrust to educate poor children in South Carolina and Georgia. Both the will and the trust contained no-contest clauses. In 2007, five of Brown's six named children and Tommie Rae Hynie, who had a relationship and a marriage of disputed validity with Brown, sued to set aside the will and trust for undue influence, seeking intestate succession instead; Hynie also claimed a spousal share. South Carolina's Attorney General intervened to protect the charitable trust. After Robert Buchanan and Adele Pope were appointed personal representatives and trustees, the Attorney General negotiated a settlement with the family giving them substantially more than the will and trust provided, and the circuit court approved it and removed Buchanan and Pope from their fiduciary roles over their objection.