A jury has ruled that a will, handwritten by Aretha Franklin and discovered in her couch following her death in 2018, is valid. The ruling was determined on Tuesday by a Detroit jury after a years-long battle among the late singer’s sons.
The jury took under an hour to reach its verdict. Franklin’s son, Ted White II, told the court on Monday that a 2010 will discovered in a locked desk drawer at the home of Franklin should be the deemed the official will.
But lawyers for White’s brothers, Kecalf Franklin and Edward Franklin, argued that the 2014 handwritten will found in the couch should override the 2010 will. That 2014 document was found in a spiral notebook under a cushion on a sofa.
White stressed that his mother always used a lawyer for important professional matters, with the 2010 document being notarized and signed numerous times by his mother.
The 2014 document was also dated and signed “A. Franklin.” The first initial in that signature included a smiley face inside of it, which was how Aretha Franklin typically signed her name. However, the 2014 document was not notarized.
“With all the time I spent working with her administratively, every other document that she ever signed was something that was done conventionally and legally,” White told the six-person jury.
According to the AP, both wills “appeared to indicate that Franklin’s four sons would share income from music and copyrights.” But the 2014 detailed that Kecalf Franklin and grandchildren would get Aretha Franklin’s main home in Bloomfield Hills.
The 2010 will mandated that Kecalf, 53, and Edward Franklin “must take business classes and get a certificate or a degree” in order to receive their portions of the estate. But this provision was not included in the 2014 version.
Aretha Franklin did not have a formal will when she passed away in 2018.
According to reports, her estate has assets of around $6 million.