James Brown’s family settle 15-year estate dispute

The family of late singer James Brown have reached a settlement agreement in the 15-year dispute over his estate, according to the Associated Press.

Lawyer representing Brown’s estate, David Black, told the AP the settlement was reached on July 9, although details of the deal were not made public.

Brown’s estate, who died at age 73 on December 25, 2006, has been plagued by more than a dozen lawsuits since his death. One of the most striking was that of Tomi Rae Hynie, Brown’s former partner and mother of one of his children who claimed to be his fourth and last wife. But in June 2020, the South Carolina Supreme Court declared the marriage invalid, determining that Hynie had not been legally married to Brown and therefore was not entitled to her property, which the courts said could go from $ 5 to $ 100 million. If he was determined to be his widow, Hynie could have been entitled to at least a third of his estate, as the New York Times reports.

According to the New York Times, Hynie’s marriage to Brown was ruled invalid because at the time of their marriage in 2001, Hynie was married to another man, whom she discovered had three wives in Pakistan. Hynie’s attorneys had argued that because Hynie’s former husband had several other marriages, their marriage was void – but citing a 2008 ruling, the South Carolina Supreme Court said the marriage did not been officially declared invalid by a “competent court,” as the New York Times Reports.

Now that a settlement agreement has been reached and Hynie is not involved in the estate, Brown’s children should get the copyright termination rights for Brown’s publishing agreements, according to the New York City. Times. It also likely gives them control over Brown’s expressed desire to establish scholarships for underprivileged children in South Carolina and Georgia.