NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Very passionate, emotional arguments from both sides Tuesday as lawyers from Tom Benson and his daughter appeared in Orleans Parish Civil District Court. Judge Kern Reese had to rule on two matters.
Tom Benson’s lawyers filed an exception, asking that the case be dismissed on “no cause of action.” The judge denied that.
Renee Benson and her grandchildren’s lawyers filed a motion that Tom be medically evaluated to determine if he is fully capable of making sound decisions. The judge did not deny that but made some changes.
Originally, Renee Benson and her children’s attorney, Randy Smith, asked that Tom be evaluated by a geriatric specialist, and they wanted him to undergo a 15-hour procedure.
Tom Benson’s lawyer, Phil Wittman, argued that his wife did not want him to go through such an in-depth medical evaluation and that he is fine.
Judge Reese decided that the proposed evaluation was too extensive. He decided that Renee Benson’s lawyer will pick a doctor and Tom Benson’s lawyer will pick a doctor. Then he wants the two doctors to pick a third doctor. He wants them to all come together and submit an evaluation.
If they don’t agree, they can submit separate evaluations and the judge will make a decision from there.
Tensions were high in the courtroom. Proceedings started with the exception for no cause of action.
Wittman immediately attacked Renee Benson and her children Ryan and Rita LeBlanc, telling the court that they had been given “hundreds of millions of dollars” after Tom Benson cut them out of business matters, but they were “not satisfied with that.”
“[Renee Benson and her children] don’t give a damn about Benson’s person. They just want to control his assets. He’s protecting himself by eliminating their involvement…they want to strip their father and grandfather of his own assets. They never had that control and that was what was really the issue here,” said Wittman.
He concluded that Renee and her children were “fired because they weren’t capable” and when it comes to the sudden managerial changes, “he’s entitled to change his mind and he doesn’t have to explain why.”
Smith tried to tug at the judge’s heart strings, describing the Bensons as “a close family that survived the death of of their mother, grandmother and the next woman [Tom Benson] married, who was like a mother to them.”
He said Renee, “his sole surviving, 58-year-old daughter has been close to her father for 57.8 of those years” and “all of the sudden, with no explanation, an 87-year-old man that they love was increasingly becoming sick and confused…and then they get this email typed by someone else saying ‘I never want to see you again, you’re banned from everything, you’re out of my life.’ A series of acts that are not consistent with the rest of his life.”
He concluded that “[Renee Benson and her children] love this man. This is their family. He is vulnerable and he’s vulnerable to whoever is around him. They’re concerned about the rest of his life…This is not a place where my clients wanted to be, but they need to be because he’s being take advantage of and this is the only place where something can be done.”
Then Judge Kerns asked them to discuss the motion for a medical evaluation on Tom Benson.
Smith opened, saying people with “diminished capacity can fool the average person for a little bit” but a proper evaluation needed to be done. He also pointed out that Benson had not appeared at any proceedings.
Wittman argued that allegations about Tom Benson’s bizarre behavior were unfounded and one of the times Renee Benson and her grandchildren claimed he was acting strangely, he was heavily medicated for a knee surgery.
Smith argued they could conduct the medical evaluation, or both sides could bring in “a bunch of fact witnesses — caregivers, fired caregivers, current business associates, fired business associates” but “that’s subject to potential bias” and “we are not going to do that, no one wants this to drag on, I assure you.”
To which Judge Kerns quickly responded, ” Well, it won’t, make no mistake.”
The judge wants those evaluations completed by March 13, 2015.
He has not set a date for the next hearing because he needs time to review those evaluations.
This family feud all began last month, when Tom announced that he was leaving his sports empire to his wife, Gayle. His daughter, Renee and her children, say Gayle is taking advantage of Tom’s declining health.
But Tom says he gave his daughter and grandchildren an opportunity to prove they could run the family business and they failed.