Settlement talks in the lawsuit filed by a former girlfriend of 92-year-old media mogul Sumner Redstone challenging his mental competence have run into complications,
according to the
Hollywood Reporter.
Redstone controls Viacom Inc. and CBS Inc,
If a settlement cannot be reached, a trial is scheduled to begin May 6.
The former girlfriend, Manuela Herzer, “has described [Redstone] as a ‘living ghost' and claimed he is not mentally competent to make decisions regarding himself and his companies,” the
Hollywood Reporter
article said. Herzer had been removed as the person in charge of Redstone's health care and replaced by Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman.
A
New York Times
report
said “a framework of a settlement” had been reached that involved a payout for Herzer “that could reach into the tens of millions of dollars” and plans for Redstone's health care. The plan included a provision stipulating that Redstone was making his own heath care decisions and that his daughter, Shari Redstone, would take over supervising his health care when he is no longer able to do so, the
Times
article said. Herzer's attorney told the
Times
and the
Hollywood Reporter
that the snag in the settlement talks is not related to money.
Meanwhile,
the
Wall Street Journal
reported
that email correspondence from a former lawyer for Sumner Redstone revealed that Redstone's associates “were worried as far back as April 2015 that if [his] medical condition became public, Viacom Inc. would have to remove him as a director and stop paying him.”
The associates were also concerned that if Redstone made negative comments about his daughter to the press, she might try to have him declared incompetent to handle his own financial affairs “and set in motion a corporate-governance overhaul at Viacom.” (Sources:
Hollywood Reporter
, April 12, 2016;
New York Times
, April 12, 2016;
Wall Street Journal
, April 12, 2016.)
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