Children of late ex-USC coach Jim Carlen contest will
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Three adult children of the late former University of South Carolina football coach Jim Carlen have filed a petition in probate court, alleging the coach’s second wife orchestrated a revised will that unlawfully disinherited them from the coach’s $10 million-plus estate.
In the last years of his life, Carlen suffered from severe dementia and Alzheimer’s, and that is when his second wife, Meredith Carlen, “unduly influenced” him to write a new will, cutting them off from inheriting any money at all as well as any sports memorabilia, the siblings’ petition says.
“The former Gamecock ball coach was exploited and unduly influenced in his weakened state and his true final wishes were erased through a purposed Last Will … at a time when he could not have understood and appreciated what the document represented,” said the petition filed in Richland County probate court.
Meredith Carlen said Wednesday of the petition, “It sickens me – I have nothing to say.”
Her estate lawyer, Steve Johnson of Columbia, could not be reached. Johnson’s Internet site has a Question and Answer page that says, “Must a person be mentally competent to write a valid will in South Carolina? Yes.”
Mollianne Carlen Elliott, James A. Carlen IV and Melanie Carlen Caswell filed the petition. Between them they have 12 children of their own, and those children were also cut off from receiving any inheritance, the petition alleges.
“There is no father who loves his children and grandchildren who would have done something like this,” said Eric Bland, the Columbia attorney who filed the petition for the three.
“We consider Coach Carlen to have been a vulnerable adult,” Bland said.
Carlen, USC’s head football coach from 1975-81, died in July 2012 in a Hilton Head-area care facility at the age of 79.
One of USC’s winningest football coaches ever, he recruited Heisman Trophy running back George Rogers and compiled a 45-36-1 record. USC was his last coaching job.
After football, Carlen pursued business interests in the fields of real estate, banking, franchise operation and investing and “amassed assets worth in excess of $10 million,” the children’s petition says.
In the last years of his life, Carlen suffered from severe dementia and Alzheimer’s, and that is when his second wife, Meredith Carlen, “unduly influenced” him to write a new will, cutting them off from inheriting any money at all as well as any sports memorabilia, the siblings’ petition says.
“The former Gamecock ball coach was exploited and unduly influenced in his weakened state and his true final wishes were erased through a purposed Last Will … at a time when he could not have understood and appreciated what the document represented,” said the petition filed in Richland County probate court.
Meredith Carlen said Wednesday of the petition, “It sickens me – I have nothing to say.”
Her estate lawyer, Steve Johnson of Columbia, could not be reached. Johnson’s Internet site has a Question and Answer page that says, “Must a person be mentally competent to write a valid will in South Carolina? Yes.”
Mollianne Carlen Elliott, James A. Carlen IV and Melanie Carlen Caswell filed the petition. Between them they have 12 children of their own, and those children were also cut off from receiving any inheritance, the petition alleges.
“There is no father who loves his children and grandchildren who would have done something like this,” said Eric Bland, the Columbia attorney who filed the petition for the three.
“We consider Coach Carlen to have been a vulnerable adult,” Bland said.
Carlen, USC’s head football coach from 1975-81, died in July 2012 in a Hilton Head-area care facility at the age of 79.
One of USC’s winningest football coaches ever, he recruited Heisman Trophy running back George Rogers and compiled a 45-36-1 record. USC was his last coaching job.
After football, Carlen pursued business interests in the fields of real estate, banking, franchise operation and investing and “amassed assets worth in excess of $10 million,” the children’s petition says.
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