Old-Fashioned Probate Litigation
As long as people have been dying, people have been fighting over inheritances. This article in the Palladium-Item, a newspaper "serving the Greater Richmond, IN area," reminds us of this fact. As the article explains:
Former President Benjamin Harrison came to Richmond as a lawyer in the socially scandalous "Morrisson Will Case." It started on Jan. 2, 1895, and ended on May 17, making it the longest jury trial in the United States at the time.
The heirs of Richmond banker James L. Morrisson squabbled over his sizable estate of $626,840.
It seems like some things never change -- the lawyers wound up the big winners, and the parties eventually settled:
With the threat of legal action repeating and no end in legal sight, capitulation followed and both sides came to terms.
On May 17, a compromise was reached and the fortune was divided amicably between the two children of Morrisson's late son, and his daughter and her grandchildren.
The trial was estimated to cost between $75,000 and $100,000, a huge chunk of lost will revenue.
Harrison made $19,000 in the melee....
According to this site, $19,000 in 1895 is the equivalent of about $425,000 in 2004 dollars if we use the Consumer Price Index to make comparisons. Mr. Morrison's estate ($626,840 in 1895) would be worth about $14 million in 2004.
