Family of heiress takes her $300M will to court

Huguette Clark, a 104-year-old heiress to a $300 million copper and railway fortune, was a recluse. Now her family is trying to muscle in on her will by claiming she was mentally ill.

Clark spent her last 20 years in a New York hospital, even though she was healthy, because she was lonely. She still maintained her Park Avenue apartment, her Connecticut mansion, and her $24-million California estate. Her best friends were dolls, reports Maclean’s.

Read: NYC hospital wooed isolated heiress for money

When she died in 2009 her family found out they weren’t in her will. Instead, she gave $30 million in cash and gifts (including a Bentley and six homes) to a nurse, and created a foundation to preserve her Santa Barbara, Calif. home and distributed other presents to non-relatives.

Though family members haven’t seen Clark since 1957, 19 relatives are going to court to attempt to overturn her will, the Maclean’s report adds. They argue she wasn’t capable of deciding what to do with her money. They add her lawyer, nurse, caregivers and others took advantage of her.

Read: Despite solid will, last wishes of art collector thwarted

When she died, she owed the IRS $82 million in back taxes.

Maclean’s is following the work of NBC journalist Bill Dedman; read more here and here.

Also read: Michael Jackson’s estate disputes IRS valuation