Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard spent the offseason in a legal battle with family over the management of his money. It turns out that Howard was not the only one in the Phillies organization fighting with kinfolk over money. This time it goes to the top: Phillies part-owner John Middleton reportedly in engaged in a legal battle with his sister:
According to Bob Fernandez and Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer:
John S. Middleton, the billionaire part-owner of the Phillies, is battling in court with a younger sister over a 2003 deal in which he bought her and others out of the family's conglomerate for about $200 million and then sold part of the firm four years later for $2.9 billion, according to documents filed in Montgomery County Orphan's Court last week.
The sister, Anna K. Nupson, has yet to make specific claims of wrongdoing in court. But she said in a court document last month that she may bring "substantive claims that pertain to possible self-dealing" by her brother.
The Middleton family owned a cigar business best known for their "Black and Mild" cigars. In the piece, John Middleton insists that the profit made after buying out his sister was based upon risk he took himself after the rest of the family was out of the picture, and that the Phillies part-owner did not even initiate the deal:
Middleton bought his sisters and mother out of Bradford Holdings in 2003 for about $165 million – plus a $54 million dividend payment split among all the family members. Court papers say the buyout was initiated by Middleton's other sister, Hughes, and Nupson joined her. Hughes was represented in her discussions of the buyout by the North Carolina law firm Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice L.L.P., which also defended the cigarette company R.J. Reynolds in tobacco lawsuits.
The prices paid for the shares held by Nupson and her sister were far more generous than the price suggested in two appraisals of Bradford Holdings, in 2000 and 2002, court documents say. The price was also more than Hughes initially sought.
It sounds like no matter what, every Middleton is filthy rich.
Reports suggest that Middleton is angling for full control of the Phillies. Middleton's father, Herbert, bought a share of the Phillies from the Levy family in 1994, and that share has grown as high as 47%, according to Howard Eskin of Fox 29. By the terms of the original purchase back in 1981 for $30 million, no majority owner may exist unless all parties agree to it.
