The secrets are out on deal to settle suit over Rosa Parks estate (MI)

The secret legal agreement designed to settle the brawl over the estate of civil rights leader Rosa Parks is a secret no more.

The confidential seven-page document — signed by Parks’ 15 nieces and nephews, Parks’ longtime friend and caregiver Elaine Steele and an official of the institute Parks and Steele founded — turned up in a Jan. 18 filing with the Michigan Supreme Court.

The agreement — struck during a late-night bargaining session in February 2007 in order to avert a trial in Wayne County Probate Court — spells out how the parties are to divvy up the proceeds from the sale of Parks’ belongings, said to be worth up to $8 million because of their historic value.

Under the agreement, Steele and the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development will get 80% of the net proceeds from the sale of Parks’ possessions, as well as the royalties from licensing her name, image and likeness. The nieces and nephews are to get 20%.

The deal also requires:

• The parties to refrain from publicly criticizing one another.

• Parties that divulge the contents of the agreement must forfeit their share.

• Disputes under the agreement were to be resolved informally by Probate Judge Freddie Burton Jr. and, if that failed, were to go through binding arbitration.

The document was filed by a most unlikely person, Alan May, the same lawyer whose complaint about an alleged prior breach of confidentially of the agreement caused Burton to strip Steele and the institute of their share of Parks’ estate.

May attached the agreement to a legal brief that urged the high court to reconsider its Dec. 29 decision ordering Burton to put Steele and retired 36th District Judge Adam Shakoor back in charge of the estate, in keeping with Parks’ wishes.

“The Supreme Court released the settlement agreement, I didn’t,” May said last week, adding that the court’s staff had assured him his filing would be kept under wraps. “I believed I was filing a sealed document.”

The Supreme Court rejected his request to seal the entire file.

Steven Cohen, the Farmington Hills lawyer whom May had accused of publicly divulging part of the document, causing Steele and the institute to lose their share of the estate, said May was careless.

“Alan May and his clients used a phony breach of confidentiality to torture my clients,” Cohen said. “I wonder whether Judge Burton will assess any sanctions against Mr. May for doing precisely what he falsely accused me of doing.”

It’s unclear what, if anything, Burton will do about the foul-up.

The relatives’ lawyer, Lawrence Pepper of Farmington Hills, doubted whether it would affect the handling of the estate.

Cohen, May and Pepper would not discuss details of the agreement.

The filing flap is the latest twist in a six-year legal saga that began when Parks’ relatives challenged the validity of her will and trust shortly after her death in 2005.

Parks sparked the modern civil rights movement in 1955 by refusing to give up her seat to a white man on an Alabama bus.

Parks picked Steele and Shakoor to handle her estate. But her relatives accused Steele of manipulating their aunt to cut them out of a share. Steele and Shakoor stepped aside, and Burton replaced them with Detroit lawyers John Chase Jr. and Melvin Jefferson Jr.

They hired Guernsey’s Auctioneers of New York City to collect Parks’ papers, photographs and other belongings. Guernsey’s has been trying, in a down economy, to find an institution to buy and display the collection. It hopes to fetch $8 million.

Although the settlement agreement required Burton to reinstate Steele and Shakoor, the judge left Chase and Jefferson in place.

Cohen later accused Chase and Jefferson, with Burton’s approval, of draining the estate of $243,000. Cohen also accused Chase, Jefferson and their lawyer, May, of concocting the breach of confidentiality charge that caused his clients’ forfeiture.

Cohen said Burton also failed to submit the confidentiality dispute to arbitration as the agreement required.

When he didn’t get anywhere with his complaints to the Court of Appeals, Cohen urged the Supreme Court last July to intervene.

In late December, the high court ruled that there was no confidentiality breach, voiding the forfeiture. The court also told Burton to put Steele and Shakoor back in charge.

Burton asked the justices to relent, saying among other things that Steele had routinely ignored his orders.

But the justices held firm and Burton reappointed the pair last Wednesday.

A probate expert said the high court slapped Burton’s hand.

“The No. 1 goal of probate law is to enforce the wishes of the person who died,” said Andrew Mayoras, a Troy probate lawyer and coauthor of “Trial & Heirs: Famous Fortune Fights.”

“To take away what Rosa Parks intended to happen with her legacy based on what at most appeared to be a technical violation is pretty Draconian,” Mayoras added.

Given all of the bad blood in the case and Burton’s concerns about Steele, Mayoras said he expects Burton, a respected judge, will be closely watching how Steele and Shakoor proceed.

“I think he will keep them on a very short leash,” Mayoras said.

One of Parks’ nieces, Susan McCauley of suburban Atlanta, said she’s getting weary of the continuing controversy.

“It’s all very frustrating,” she said last week.

More Details:

Highlights of the Parks estate fight

Key details of the 2007 legal agreement that divvied up the proceeds of civil rights icon Rosa Parks’ estate:

• Parks’ nieces and nephews, who challenged Parks’ will, acknowledge its validity.

• Parks’ assistant and caregiver, Elaine Steele, and retired 36th District Judge Adam Shakoor will be reinstated as co-personal representatives of the estate.

• Steele and the institute she founded with Parks will receive 80% of new proceeds from the sale of Parks’ belongings, said to be worth $8 million, and royalties from licensing Parks’ name. The relatives get 20%.

• The institute and relatives will be allowed to inspect Parks’ belongings and be allowed to copy documents and photographs at their expense.

• A three-member committee, appointed by Steele and the institute, Parks’ relatives and Wayne County Probate Court will decide how to sell Parks’ belongings.

• Steele, the institute and relatives agree not to make disparaging comments about on another.

• Parties that divulge contents of the settlement are to forfeit their share.

• Any disputes under the agreement are to be presented to Wayne County Judge Freddie Burton Jr. for informal resolution. If he can’t resolve them, they will be presented to binding arbitration.

• A niece was to contribute the coat Parks wore when she refused in 1955 to give up her bus seat. The niece said she misplaced it.

More Details: Time line of the Parks estate dispute

July 1998: Rosa Parks creates a will and trust, giving her assistant Elaine Steele and retired 36th District Judge Adam Shakoor control of her affairs.

Feb. 15, 2002: One of Parks’ nieces petitions Wayne County Probate Court to become Parks’ guardian and conservator, claiming Parks was being neglected and exploited. Judge Freddie Burton Jr. eventually rejects the request.

Oct. 24, 2005: Parks dies, leaving nearly all of her assets to the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development.

Nov. 10, 2005: Parks’ nephew challenges the validity of her will and trust, claiming Steele manipulated Parks, who had dementia, into cutting them out of their aunt’s estate.

June 29, 2006: Burton puts attorneys John Chase Jr. and Melvin Jefferson Jr. in charge of the estate.

Oct. 26, 2006: Burton orders the lawyers, with the help of Guernsey’s Auctioneers of New York, to inventory and collect Parks’ belongings. Guernsey’s later reports that some items had been kept in deplorable conditions.

Feb. 16, 2007: Steele, the institute and Parks’ relatives settle their differences in a secret agreement Burton approves.

March 19, 2009: Court of Appeals affirms Burton’s decision to award $106,746 in legal fees to Chase and Jefferson, saying they recognized the value of Parks’ estate and got Guernsey’s involved. It said Steele and the institute were less than cooperative during the process.

May 28, 2009: Chase and Jefferson accuse Steven G. Cohen — lawyer for Steele and the institute — of divulging details of the secret settlement during the appeals court hearing.

Aug. 10, 2009: Burton agrees with the two lawyers and strips Steele and the institute of their share of the estate.

April 19, 2011: Court of Appeals upholds Burton’s forfeiture order.

July 17, 2011: Cohen urges Michigan Supreme Court to intervene.

Dec. 29, 2011: Supreme Court orders Burton to put Steele and Shakoor back in charge of the estate within 30 days and says Cohen didn’t divulge details.

Jan. 13, 2012: Burton urges the Supreme Court to reconsider, saying Steele had routinely ignored court orders.

Jan. 17: Cohen tells the court Burton’s charges are untrue.

Jan. 18: Attorney Alan May, representing Chase and Jefferson, urges high court to reconsider its decision and seal the file. He publicly files a copy of secret settlement agreement.

Jan. 27: Supreme Court again orders Burton to reinstate Steele and Shakoor.

Attribution:

The secrets are out on deal to settle suit over Rosa Parks estate
David Ashenfelter
February 5, 2012
Detroit Free Press
http://www.freep.com/article/20120205/NEWS06/202050503/The-secrets-are-out-on-deal-to-settle-suit-over-Rosa-Parks-estate