The long-running feud amongst heirs to Sol Goldman’s large New York property fortune is heating up once more, with new authorized filings that would reshape management of a household empire spanning a few of Manhattan’s most prized addresses.
Amy Goldman Fowler and her poker-playing nephew, Steven Gurney-Goldman, have submitted petitions to New York’s Surrogate’s Court docket searching for to take away two of their kin — Jane Goldman and Diane Goldman Kemper — as executors of the property of their mom and grandmother, Lillian Goldman.
The petition additionally asks the courtroom to strip Jane, who’s Amy’s sister and Steven’s aunt, of her position as trustee of the Lillian Goldman Marital Belief.
Information of the courtroom submitting was reported by Bloomberg Information.
The household’s agency, Solil Administration, controls greater than 400 properties all through New York Metropolis, starting from retail and workplace buildings close to Madison Avenue to cooperative flats uptown.
The household’s holdings embrace floor leases beneath prestigious properties such because the Peninsula New York and the Mark Resort.
Of their filings, Amy and Steven accuse Jane of blocking the distribution of greater than $100 million in money property and manipulating Diane — who they are saying is now not mentally match to serve — as a way of consolidating energy over the property.
“Sadly, Diane suffers from substantial health issues that have diminished her mental capacity to the point that she can no longer serve as co-executor of the Estate,” Steven wrote in a courtroom submitting cited by Bloomberg Information.
He added that Diane is “currently unaware” of her position and that Jane has taken benefit of the state of affairs “to the detriment of other beneficiaries.”
Their legal professional, Jason Cyrulnik, strongly denied the claims, framing them as a rehash of arguments that had already failed in courtroom.
“Steven and Amy’s latest filing in Surrogate’s Court attempts to revive claims that were a part of that baseless scheme and that the New York Supreme Court dismissed last year… We look forward to further exposing their leverage scheme and defeating it in due course,” Cyrulnik informed Bloomberg Information.
This newest authorized skirmish is simply the latest episode in a household battle that dates again to the early Nineteen Eighties.
In 1983, Lillian Goldman left her husband, Sol Goldman — the proprietor of what was on the time New York Metropolis’s largest personal actual property portfolio — accusing him of infidelity and bodily abuse. She demanded half of his estimated $1 billion in property.
Sol persuaded her to return by promising a number of million {dollars} up entrance and a 3rd of his property upon his dying — no matter whether or not they remained married, in accordance with the New York Occasions.
Although Lillian initially agreed, their reconciliation shortly unraveled, resulting in a contentious authorized struggle over the settlement’s validity. Lillian argued it had been fraudulently obtained; Sol claimed it was binding.
A choose in the end sided with Sol in September 1987. Lower than a month later, he died on the age of 70 — prompting Lillian to embrace the very deal she had spent years attempting to nullify.
His kids then challenged her declare to the property. They argued that Lillian’s refusal to just accept an preliminary fee in addition to her declining his supply to return to reside with him meant she had forfeited her declare.
The dispute over Sol’s property set the stage for what would turn out to be a protracted and more and more bitter battle amongst his heirs.
When Lillian handed away in 2002, her 4 kids — Amy, Jane, Diane, and Allan — had been named executors of her property. That property was valued at $656 million in 2022, whereas the marital belief is now price greater than $1 billion.
Courtesy of Joe Ruback
Tensions inside the household escalated additional after Allan’s dying in 2022.
His son Steven took over as executor of his father’s property and aligned with Amy to problem Jane’s management over the belief and its related property. In courtroom, they’ve accused Jane of seizing management following Allan’s passing and undervaluing the true property portfolio.
Jane has pushed again strongly towards the allegations, calling them “works of fiction” and claiming that Amy and Steven are searching for to “extract disproportionate benefits for themselves.”
Amy and Steven did win a current ruling in Delaware, the place a choose ordered Jane to share management of SG Windsor, a central household holding firm, with different kin. Jane is interesting that call.
In the meantime, litigation in New York, centered on how the property’s property have been valued, stays unresolved.
