Homer Laffoon, the son of deceased actress Anne Heche, who died in a coma after a fiery high-speed vehicle crash in Los Angeles, has been granted management of his mother’s estate.
The court granted his appointment as impartial administrator after several weeks fighting with James Tupper, Anne Heche’s ex-boyfriend, who has a child birthed by the actress.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lee Bogdanoff granted the management toHeche’s adult son Homer Laffoon and dismissed Tupper’s allegations that Laffoon was ineligible to manage the estate because he is too young, jobless, and was estranged from his mother at the time of her fatal accident.
There was also an accusation by Tupper that a $200,000 jewelry collection was missing due to Laffoon’s poor management of the estate. Tupper said that after Heche passed away, Laffoon took too long to secure his mother’s property. The judge denied the request for an hearing because and said the claim was unreasonable.
Tupper asserted that Heche had named him as executor via en email in 2011. In the email, she gave Tupper control of her assets, to be used to take care of her two boys, each of whom would get half of her estate when they turned 25. Because no documentation supporting the email was submitted, it was not considered valid, according to Laffoon’s lawyers. Laffoon claimed that his mother died without leaving a will, and that he was “legally entitled to appointment as administrator.”
One of the problems Laffoon will have to handle as the executor of his mother’s estate is creditor demands. One is a claim by an actor, Thomas Jane, who said he loaned Heche $157,000, and that she still owed $149,000 with interest and late penalties. As a result of the car accident that killed Heche when she crashed her Mini Cooper into the home of Lynne Mishele, the estate is being sued for about $2 million. Mishele is demanding compensation for “negligence, infliction of mental distress, and trespass.”
A hearing will take place on March 15 to determine how much collateral Laffoon must set aside to pay the demands on the estate. It was temporarily decided to place $800,000 in collateral until the hearing.
