Nearly fifteen years later, the dispute over James Brown’s estate has almost come to an end.
Since his death in 2006, the legendary musician’s assets have been at the center of lawsuits issued by various administrators, his children, and his former romantic partner. The legal complications surrounding the estate have also slowed down the creation of a charitable organization that Brown emphasized in his will, according to The New York Times. One of the late singer’s final wishes was to establish a charity that could distribute millions of dollars via educational scholarships given to poor and underprivileged children in South Carolina and Georgia. The Times notes that Brown’s family was largely left out of the inheritance, although he did leave some of his “costumes and personal effects” to a few of his children and provided $2 million, earmarked for scholarships for his grandchildren.
But now, after two months of “lengthy mediation discussions,” according to a statement from Brown’s children and the estate’s administrator, Russell L. Bauknight, a settlement was finally reached last Friday that will resolve most of the outstanding litigation. It will also allow the process of fulfilling “Mr. Brown’s noble estate plan to fund scholarships” to begin. Marc Toberoff, a lawyer for nine of Brown’s heirs—which include five children, the estate of another child, and three grandchildren—also told the paper, “The matter has been settled,” but did not divulge further details.
While the terms of this new settlement are secret, The Times says Brown’s children and grandchildren were known to be requesting a percentage of the proceeds from his songwriting copyrights. According to The Times, his heirs stand to benefit from music streaming, radio play, and the licensing of songs for movies and TV commercials, as well as the profits that could be made from selling his music catalog to publishers and investors. Bauknight has previously estimated the Godfather of Soul’s estate to be worth $4.7 million, although according to The Times, other estimates have speculated that it could be as much as $100 million, not including his hundreds of songwriting copyrights, which are not a part of the estate.
Lawsuits over the estate have included accusations of conspiracy and “illegal back-room agreements” meant to allegedly keep the musician’s children and grandchildren from receiving their share of his copyrights. There was also a debate over the validity of his 2001 marriage to backup singer Tommie Rae Hynie, who acted as his widow following his death, making copyright deals worth millions of dollars until the Supreme Court of South Carolina ruled last year that she was never Brown’s legal spouse as she had not annulled a previous marriage before her marriage to Brown.
Dylan Malagrinò, an associate professor at the Charleston School of Law in South Carolina, told the paper that he expects the estate will now move quickly to fund the trust and pay the scholarships Brown stipulated in his will, in part to create some positive press after nearly 15 years of controversy. And now that the settlement has been reached and, as The Times reports, only a dispute with one of the estate’s former administrators remains, he says, “Chances are they will speak in one voice: ‘This is the way we go forward.’”
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