Al Hill Jr. Commits Fraud on the Court, Might Lose Millions to Al Hill III

This decision was handed down by District Judge Reed O’Connor on February 18, but I haven’t seen news of it anywhere, so let’s see if I can sum it without having to jump. Al Hill III, great-grandson of H.L. Hunt, is suing his father, Al Hill Jr., for about $92 million. The argument centers on some documents signed by Al Jr. in 2005 that gave the money to Al III. You read about this in the cover story Gretel Kovach did for us in 2008.

Well, as recently as December 2009, it looked like Al III was going to lose his fight, as Al Jr. claimed that when he signed those documents in 2005, he was incapacitated and shouldn’t have been anywhere near any documents. But no! Now the court has determined that an updated version of those documents was actually created in 2007 — or part of them was. And by that time, Al Jr. was totally capacitated. An attorney named Ivan Irwin who has worked for Al Jr. for 50 years testified that “his secretary edited the first two pages of the 2005 Disclaimer in 2007 and ‘then stapled [the updated two pages] back on to the original signature page, which was signed in 2005.’” That secretary was Joyce Waller. There is a question about whether she signed Al Jr.’s name to some of the documents. It gets complicated-er. Perhaps I’ll write more on this later.

Anyway, the point is, Judge O’Conner has determined that the documents were backdated and that Al Jr. lied (”falsly testified,” if you prefer) to the Court when asked to explain what had happened and when. That’s a big no-no. First thing, then, is that Al Jr. owes his son some attorneys fees. That’s required by law. But Judge O’Connor goes further: “The Court does not take lightly the task of determining what sanctions are appropriate to adequately address the grave misconduct committed by Al Jr.” O’Connor says he might still find Al Jr. in contempt. Even worse for Al Jr., though, O’Connor could enter summary judgment in favor of Al III, giving him that $92 million. The Court ordered the parties to try to work it out mediation.

Bottom line: Al III’s stock just went up. A lot.

(Note: I updated this post after spending more time with the ruling to clarify, if you can believe it, the material in the second paragraph explaining the controversy over the documents.)