HONOLULU — A long, bitter legal battle over
control of a 94-year-old Native Hawaiian heiress' $215-million fortune
raged on Tuesday, with a judge saying her conservatorship should be
unlimited but not ruling on who the conservator will be.
It's not clear
when Judge R. Mark Browning will rule on who will serve as conservator
for Abigail Kawananakoa, considered a princess by some because she's
related to the family that ruled the islands before the overthrow of the
Hawaiian kingdom in 1893.
Browning "finds
that an unlimited conservatorship is appropriate," he said in a written
order after hearing arguments Tuesday. His order also directs a
court-appointed helper, known as a Kokua Kanawai, to do a "brief
investigation into the four proposed conservators," including
Kawananakoa's wife.
The Kokua Kanawai must interview the
nominated conservators and file a report by the end of the month.
Browning set a July 21 hearing.
Kawananakoa
inherited her wealth as the great-granddaughter of James Campbell, an
Irish businessman who made his fortune as a sugar plantation owner and
one of Hawaii's largest landowners.
The legal
wrangling dates to 2017, when her longtime lawyer, Jim Wright, argued a
stroke left her impaired. Kawananakoa said she's fine and fired Wright.
She then married her partner of 20 years, Veronica Gail Worth, who later
took her last name.
Native Hawaiians
have been closely watching what happens because they are concerned
about the fate of a foundation she set up to benefit Hawaiian causes.
"It is our
kuleana to ensure Abigail Kawānanakoa's resources — which she intended
for the Hawaiian community — aren't hijacked for personal or corporate
gain," Oz Stender, interim director of her foundation, said in a
statement, using the Hawaiian word for responsibility.
Another judge
ruled in March that Kawananakoa needs a conservator because she's unable
to manage her property and business affairs. She testified that she
doesn't need anyone to handle her estate because she isn't dead yet.
Kawananakoa, who
turned 94 in April, listened to Tuesday's hearing by telephone. She
didn't speak during the proceeding. Because of the coronavirus pandemic,
the judge allowed only a few attorneys to be in the courtroom to avoid a
crowded space. Other attorneys, including those representing her
foundation, participated by telephone.
She wants a
limited conservatorship, said her attorney, Bruce Voss. He said she
wants the conservator to be either be her wife, or Stacey Wong, who was
trustee of the Eric A. Knudsen Trust, one of Hawaii's largest family
estates.
"Fundamentally
... what Ms. Kawananakoa wants is to maintain some control, at least
some control, over the things that are most important to her and her
life: her people, her care and her horses."
She can make
decisions, he said. "She doesn't want anyone ... to take complete
control of her life," he said. "She's a proud, smart woman."
She needs is an
independent conservator with full control over her finances who can work
with a trustee who replaces Wright, said Wright's attorney, Edmund
Saffery.
"The issue
before the court is simple, should Ms. Kawananakoa be allowed to
continue to run her financial affairs over a cliff or should the slate
finally be wiped clean with the appointment of a neutral third party
conservator beholden to seeing that Ms. Kawananakoa's finances are
managed to her best interests," Saffery said.
Full Article & Source:
Judge mulls conservator for so-called Hawaiian princess
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