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Kerouac Estate Litigation; Approaching 35th Anniversary of Jack's Passing
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john lynch
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Oct 14, 2004 04:04 PDT
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http://www.sptimes.com/2004/10/14/Southpinellas/Irony_fills_court_sag.shtmlhttp://news.tbo.com/news/MGBNB4XAA0E.html
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http://tinyurl.com/48xz4
St. Petersburg Times
Irony fills court saga of Kerouac's estate
By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE, Times Staff Writer
Published October 14, 2004
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In letters and conversation, writer Jack Kerouac
denigrated St. Petersburg, his adopted home. Once, he
cried, "Mother, cut my throat!" on the eve of a trip
to the city he called Salt Petersburg.
He died here at age 47 on Oct. 21, 1969, a
booze-swigging, hard-living Beat Generation icon whose
body couldn't keep up with his legend.
In a sense, the city hasn't buried the writer yet.
A judge on Wednesday postponed a lawsuit contesting a
will that helped land Kerouac's valuable estate into
his in-law's hands, prolonging one of the
longest-running legal soap operas in Pinellas courts.
The reason for the delay might fit neatly into one of
Kerouac's irreverent novels: his nephew, a homeless
Arizona man and a character in some of his uncle's
books, doesn't have anyone left to sue.
"You're suing nobody," Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge
George Greer told Bill Wagner, an attorney for Paul
Blake Jr., the nephew. "It's not because they didn't
show up. It's because they don't exist."
The trial finally might have decided a decade-old
legal dispute challenging whether the will of
Kerouac's mother, Gabrielle, was a forgery. Kerouac's
estate, including his former home on 10th Avenue N, is
valued by some at $20-million.
Gabrielle Kerouac died in 1973, and nobody from her
estate is still around to represent it.
Earlier this year, Greer dismissed as defendants in
Blake's suit Kerouac's in-laws, who inherited his
estate through his third wife, Stella. Her brother,
John Sampas, Kerouac's childhood friend, now controls
the estate.
Greer apologized for not noticing the flaw in the case
earlier.
The solution, Greer ruled Wednesday, is to appoint a
lawyer to represent the interests of Gabrielle
Kerouac's estate and then proceed to trial, if
necessary.
But when, or even if, a trial will ever occur is a
point of dispute.
What's left is a case that won't go away - a bitter,
messy, tangled, complex legal legacy to the life of a
dead writer who, some say, wouldn't be happy about all
the bickering.
"I don't know that Kerouac would have found any of
this amusing," said Bob Kealing, author of Kerouac in
Florida: Where the Road Ends and co-founder of the
Jack Kerouac Writers-in-Residence Project of Orlando.
"I think he would have thought it takes attention away
from what he always said: If you want to know about
me, read my books," said Kealing.
Even if Gabrielle Kerouac's will is proven a fake, the
chances of Blake getting any money are slim, most
agree. When Greer dismissed the Sampas family as
defendants, he ruled their ownership of the estate is
valid.
"It's a slim hope we get any money," Wagner said after
Wednesday's hearing in Clearwater. "But Paul wants a
decision made. He wants some legal acknowledgement of
his uncle's original intent."
It's almost a matter of principle as Blake tries to
prove that his famous uncl e and Gabrielle Kerouac
indeed wanted to give him something after they died.
Blake wasn't in court Wednesday. But he has pointed to
his uncle's last letter as proof of Kerouac's intent
to give him something.
"I just wanted to leave my "estate' . . . to someone
directly connected with the last remaining drop of my
direct blood line . . . and not to leave a dingblasted
f--- g--- thing to my wife's one hundred Greek
relatives. I also plan to divorce or have her marriage
to me annulled," Kerouac wrote to Blake.
After Kerouac died, he left everything to his mother,
not realizing the eventual court battle he had
unleashed. Kerouac decided that if she died before
him, Blake should get everything.
After his mother died in 1973, her will gave
everything to Stella Kerouac. Jack and Stella were
married for about three years. She in turn left
everything to her siblings when she died in 1990.
Blake didn't inherit anything.
Family ties and relationships run strongly through the
case.
Wednesday's court session opened with Stella Kerouac's
niece asking through her attorney to intervene in the
litigation. That way, the case would have been
contested.
Greer refused, saying she had no legal interest.
"Somebody needed to step up," said attorney Michael
Keane, who represented the niece, Marie Perritano, who
was not in court and could not be reached for comment.
"Who has more of an interest than family members?
There's no one left."
Keane said the will is not forged and that Blake
waited far too long to contest it.
He said he doubts Wagner will be able to move forward
with the suit, saying it should be barred by the
statute of limitations.
The case started in 1994, when Kerouac's only child
from his second marriage, Jan Kerouac, filed suit
contesting Gabrielle's will.
But after Jan Kerouac died in 1996, Gerald Nicosia,
who wrote what many consider the definitive biography
of Jack Kerouac, stepped in to continue her fight as
Jan Kerouac's literary representative.
Nicosia has been critical of the Sampas family for
selling parts of the estate.
A court barred Nicosia from proceeding. Later, Blake,
56, a former carpenter, stepped in.
Kerouac's financial worth at death was far inferior to
his literary reputation. When he died, beat wasn't in
vogue. He struggled financially.
His estate eventually became a valued literary relic.
Actor Johnny Depp bough Kerouac's raincoat for
$15,000. The scroll manuscript for On the Road sold
for $2.43-million.
"I think Jack would be amused," said Keane, "that
everything has taken on such monetary value after the
fact."
THE BEAT GENERATION
Jack Kerouac and a few other friends from Columbia
University, including writers Allen Ginsberg and
William S. Burroughs, became known as the center of
the "Beat" movement. They were influenced by the
popular jazz and bop music of the 1940s. Kerouac
coined the phrase "Beat Generation" to describe an
attitude of "beatness" or weariness with the world.
ON THE ROAD: In 1949, Kerouac took a road trip from
the East Coast to San Francisco with Neal Cassady and
his ex-wife Luanne. He would cross America and Mexico
several times in the next decade. These cross-country
trips comprised much of the content for Kerouac's most
famous work, On the Road, which was published in 1957.
KEROUAC IN ST. PETERSBURG: In 1966, Kerouac moved to
St. Petersburg to tend to his ailing mother. He died
in St. Anthony's Hospital three years later, and his
will listed her as his only heir. Kerouac, his mother
and his third wife, Stella Sampas, lived in small
concrete block home on 10th Avenue N.
Sources: Kerouac Foundation, Times files
[Last modified October 14, 2004, 00:43:23]
Tampa Tribune:
Thursday, October 14
Judge Postpones Kerouac Estate Trial
By DAVID SOMMER dsom-@tampatrib.com
Published: Oct 14, 2004
CLEARWATER - A decade-old dispute over the estate of
legendary Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac will
have to wait for another day in court.
A last-minute attempt to intervene in the case by one
of Kerouac's heirs caused Circuit Judge George Greer
to postpone Wednesday's trial to decide whether a will
left by Kerouac's mother, Gabrielle, had been forged.
Gabrielle Kerouac, who died in 1973, left all of her
son's belongings to his third wife, Stella Sampas
Kerouac. The estate included unpublished manuscripts,
journals and thousands of letters currently valued at
$20 million, in addition to the St. Petersburg house
where the literary icon lived at the time of his death
in 1969.
Stella Kerouac died in 1990, leaving everything to her
three siblings and their families.
Four years later, Kerouac's daughter by a previous
wife challenged her grandmother's will. The daughter,
Jan Kerouac, subsequently died, leaving the author's
last surviving blood relative, nephew Paul Blake Jr.,
to take up the fight.
Blake's attorney, Bill Wagner of Tampa, has
acknowledged that after all this time, there may be
very little left for his client to recover should he
prevail in court.
In 2002, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay paid $2.3
million for the original manuscript of ``On the
Road,'' Kerouac's most famous work. Actor Johnny Depp
once paid $15,000 for Kerouac's raincoat, The
Associated Press reported.
Wagner said he is pursuing the case because of what he
feels has been shabby treatment of his client by the
Sampas family. At most, his client would be entitled
to whatever property Stella Kerouac sold before her
death because her will is not in dispute, Wagner said.
On Wednesday morning, Wagner stood before Greer poised
to present evidence that he says will show Gabrielle
Kerouac's will was forged. A medical expert will
testify the woman was too ill to sign the will, and a
handwriting expert will testify that someone other
than Gabrielle Kerouac signed the document, Wagner
said.
Before Wagner could begin, however, an attorney
representing a niece of Stella Kerouac asked that his
client be allowed to intervene in defense of Gabrielle
Kerouac's will.
Greer denied that request because the client, Maria
Perritano, and the rest of the Sampas family had been
removed as defendants in the case at their own
request.
However, Perritano's attorney, Michael Keane of St.
Petersburg, raised a good point, Greer said.
Because there is no longer anyone in place to defend
the lawsuit, a lawyer should be assigned to represent
Gabrielle Kerouac's estate, the judge said. A new
trial date will be set after that is accomplished.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this
report. Reporter David Sommer can be reached at (727)
799-7413.
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