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Bradford Lund, grandson of Walt Disney. |
by Ellen Gerst
Since September 2020, Bradford Lund has been attempting to keep Eagle South Fork, a 110-acre ranch in Wilson, in the family in keeping with his father’s wishes.
Lund’s trustees are reportedly in the process of selling the ranch for an estimated $35 million to an undisclosed buyer, after the first potential buyer backed out in the midst of the litigation.
Right now, the case has been dismissed to Los Angeles County Superior Court, after Lund’s trustees argued it would be more convenient for them to have it tried in California. A motion to keep the case in Wyoming was denied in April.
On July 7, Lund and his attorneys filed an appeal of that decision in Wyoming Supreme Court, in hopes of keeping the ongoing case nearer to the ranch itself.
“It’s a Wyoming ranch,” said Sandra Slaton, Lund’s attorney based in Arizona. “It should be tried before a Wyoming jury.”
Slaton said keeping the case in California serves the trustees interests, since Wyoming is one of only a handful of states that don’t recognize out-of-state lis pendens, or notices of pending litigation. In most states, a lis pendens clouds the title of land to be sold and often delays the sale. Moving the case to Wyoming would likely discourage a buyer from going through with the disputed deal.
Currently, the sale is slated to go through this fall.
According to Slaton, an attempt to file a temporary restraining order in Los Angeles to pause the sale was denied earlier this year.
“It has been very traumatic for me,” Lund said last week. “It’s got some great memories and a lot of good scenery that everybody loves up there. It’s prime property.”
Lund has been locked in a dispute with his trustees for years over the distribution of his inheritance. Every five years between Lund’s 35th and 45th birthdays — all of which have now passed — he was intended to receive around $20 million of that money.
But based on the trustees’ claims that he is mentally incompetent, the money has been withheld. While rejecting a settlement in 2019 which would have awarded Lund around $200 million, a judge in California ruled to appoint a guardian ad litem for Lund in the case — a move usually reserved for children or those who can’t understand the proceedings themselves.
“Do I want to give 200 million dollars, effectively, to someone who may suffer, on some level, from Down syndrome?” Judge David Cowan said in the hearing, according to court filings. “The answer is no.”
Lund does not have Down syndrome, according to a test of his genes often cited by his attorneys. Two other judges in California and Arizona, where Lund spends most of his time, also previously ruled he was competent enough to handle the matter.
A civil rights claim filed against Cowan was dismissed last week, since he is protected by judicial immunity and the case moved to another judge’s docket. The guardian ad litem was also removed from Lund’s case.
Lund and his twin sister, Michelle, each own 50% of the ranch through their respective trusts.
In January, Lund’s team of trustees gave him about a week’s notice to come up with $35 million of his own money — not drawn from his trust — to buy the ranch outright, or else it would be eligible for sale.
The
trustees also said they would be taking a 2% “marketing fee” for
facilitating the sale, which lawyers say is extremely unusual. Under
trust law, trustees are obligated to make decisions with only the good
of their beneficiary in mind — in this case, Lund.
The unbridled greed of those “helping” Mr. Lund by “administrating” his money “in his interest” looks a lot like a gang of scoundrels abusing Mr. Lund by stealing his money for their own interests…
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