The latest legal battle regarding control of the Broncos has been joined, and the motives of those pursuing the issue have been called into question.
“It is sad and unfortunate that Beth Bowlen Wallace and Amie Bowlen Klemmer have elected to contest their father’s plan and attack his personal health,” Daniel Reilly, lawyer for the Pat Bowlen Trust, said in a statement issued Friday. “This complaint represents the latest effort in their public campaign to circumvent Pat Bowlen’s wishes.”
The two eldest daughters of the late Broncos owner contend he lacked the capacity to implement the plan to empower a trio of trustees to eventually select one of Pat Bowlen’s children to inherit control of the franchise. Wallace and Klemmer also claim that their father was unduly influenced.
“The evidence in the courtroom will show Pat Bowlen was fully capable of establishing and understanding his trust and estate plan when it was created in 2009,” Reilly said. “Mses. Wallace and Klemmer’s current position about their father’s supposed mental incapacity in 2009 was not raised by them or their lawyers until after 2014, when Ms. Wallace was privately told by the trustees that she was not capable or qualified to serve as controlling owner.”
In other words, Reilly suggests that Beth Bowlen Wallace was fine with the approach until she found out that the approach wouldn’t result in control of the team flowing to her.
And while the situation is indeed sad and unfortunate, it shouldn’t be regarded as unique surprising. Famiy members have fought far more zealously over assets far less valuable. If anything, it’s amazing that it took nearly a decade for litigation to erupt among the seven siblings.