story by Michael Tilley
mtilley@thecitywire.com
Likely to garner broad interest is an estimated $30 million inheritance-related lawsuit filed in Newton County, Arkansas, involving family members of Banquet Foods founder Howard Stamper and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Red Cross, Greenpeace, the National Audubon Society, the ACLU, PETA, the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Missouri, and a longer list of charities, universities and museums.
The suit was filed April 2 in Newton County by the Fort Smith-based law firm of Smith, Cohen & Horan on behalf of Natalie Lake, the only child of Jane Stamper, who was the granddaughter of Howard A. Stamper, the founder of Banquet Foods.
Stamper lived primarily in Newton County — she moved to Austin, Texas, in her final months – until her death on Dec. 14, 2012, after succumbing to laryngeal cancer. She was 68.
Prior to her death, Stamper, working with the St. Louis-based law firm of Armstrong Teasdale and officers with Bank of America, changed the disposition of her property to exclude her daughter, Natalie. This new, and now disputed Trust, was signed April 25, 2006.
According to the lawsuit, Stamper suffered from addictions, head injuries and “a multitude of unremitting paranoid delusions” that prevented Stamper from possessing the mental capacity required by Arkansas law to change a will.
“The Will and this Trust, in consequence, are part of a single transaction of a testamentary nature. Plaintiff, Natalie Lake, asserts that with respect to each instrument, the Will and the Trust, the Decedent, Jane Stamper, was afflicted with such unsoundness of mind that each instrument is invalid,” notes the lawsuit.
Lake is asking that William Stamper, Jane’s brother, and Bank of America void the disputed Trust and restore the possessions of Jane Stamper to their legal status prior to April 2006.
Fort Smith attorney Robert Cohen III, said it is not easy to overturn a Trust by proving a person has “no testamentary capacity,” but believes there are numerous examples of Stamper’s dementia to raise significant doubt.
The lawsuit lists several examples of “delusions” that Lake and her attorneys argue invalidate Stamper’s Trust that would give away most of the estimated $30 million estate to more than 30 charities, museums and universities. Following are a few of the examples.
• In October 1988, Stamper fell and injured her head, resulting in a coma. “These injuries produced dementia in and of themselves, and permitted pre-existing paranoid ideas that she had entertained to progress to a flagrant psychosis,” notes the lawsuit. The injury also resulted in “uncontrolled and unreasoning anger” to those around her.
• Stamper began to believe that a “Team of Thieves” was attempting to steal her possessions and property. For example, when Natalie gave her mother cookware and gloves, Stamper said the items were stolen. Stamper accused store owners in Jasper of stealing her property and attempting to resale them. “Much if not all the property that she reported was stolen by 2006 was in fact found in bringing her affairs to order after the onset of her final illness,” according to the lawsuit.
• Stamper wrote in a diary that the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Navy and local and Arkansas law enforcement were part of a conspiracy to harass her. She said the conspirators were broadcasting electronic “tweets” into her home to prevent her from sleeping.
• Stamper also wrote that human voices and music were coming from the Carroll County Electric Co. power lines running across her land.
• Following an alcohol related one-vehicle accident in 2001, Stamper’s mental situation grew worse, and in 2002 she forbade her daughter from entering her Newton County cabin.
“The overall effect of Jane Stamper’s insane delusions was to cause Jane Stamper to consider her daughter an enemy who could not be trusted to receive and hold any property belonging to Decedent, other than the highly devalued contents of Decedent’s residence,” explains the lawsuit.
Defendants, of which are numerous, have 30 days to file a response. With millions at stake, Cohen said he would not be surprised to see a strong defense from William Stamper, the Bank of America and many of the charities. Cohen said it could take a year or more before the case is heard by a judge.
The lawsuit also lists as defendants the grandchildren, grandnephews, grandnieces and and other “minor beneficiaries” within the Stamper family.
The 33 charities, museums and universities listed as defendants are:
Environmental Defense Fund
National Audubon Society
Guiding Eyes for the Blind
Salvation Army
Make-A-Wish Foundation of Missouri
Make-A-Wish Foundation of Metropolitan St. Louis
Animal Haven Rescue
Care No Kill Animal Shelter
Committee for Nuclear Responsibility
Greenpeace
Planned Parenthood Federation
Union of Concerned Scientists
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Easter Seals Society
American Cancer Society
John Burroughs School
Community School
Smith College
Arts and Education Fund of St. Louis
North American Red Cross
Ozark Public Television
Missouri Botanical Gardens
North Arkansas College
World Wildlife Fund
St. Louis Art Museum
Museum of Modern Art
American Civil Liberties Union
Washington University
Humane Society of Marion County
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Humane Society of Marion County, Arkansas
North Shore Animal League
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals