Jury rules document found in Aretha Franklin's couch is valid will

By editorial board on July 12, 2023

A two-day trial pitted the late Queen of Soul's children against each other in a battle over two handwritten versions of the singer's final wishes.

Aretha Franklin Died With $1 Million in Uncashed Checks. An inventory of Aretha Franklin found checks from Sound Exchange, Screen Writers Guild, Springtime Publishing, EMI, BMI, Carlin Music and Feel Good Film.

Attorneys for two of Franklin's sons had asserted their half-brother Ted White "wants to disinherit" them.

Tuesday's verdict ends a nearly five-year legal squabble within the family.

When Franklin died from pancreatic cancer in August 2018, it was widely believed she had not prepared a will to roughly $6m (£4.6m) in real estate, cash, gold records and furs, or to her music copyrights.

But, nine months later, her niece Sabrina Owens - the estate's executor at the time - discovered two separate sets of handwritten documents at the singer's home in Detroit.

One version, dated June 2010, was found inside a locked desk drawer, along with record contracts and other documents.

A newer version, from March 2014, was found within a spiral notebook containing Franklin's doodles wedged beneath the living room sofa cushions.

Aretha Franklin had almost of $1 million in uncashed checks in her possession at the time of her death, according to newly filed court papers. The checks were discovered during an inventory of Franklin’s possessions, adding a new twist to the battle over the Queen of Soul’s estate.(source: Billboard)

 

Franklin, who died on Aug. 16, 2018 at the age of 76, left behind four sons, Clarence, Edward, Teddy and Kecalf. Originally, no will was found and under Michigan law, her estate was set to be divided equally between her children. But nine months after her death, three handwritten wills -- two from 2010 and one from 2014 -- were found in her house.

 

So far, the hefty uncashed checks have caused less commotion. Attorneys for Franklin’s son Kecalf tracked down one the banks that issued checks to Aretha and, according to court papers, there were instances where checks had been uncashed since 2012 and had to be reissued in 2016.

 

 

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