Mistrial requested in theatre magnate inheritance dispute

Lawyers have filed for mistrial in a case involving a woman who previously failed to convince a judge that she should inherit hundreds of millions of dollars in assets due to oral promises made by her stepfather.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard B. Ulmer Jr. wrote in a statement of decision on June 28 that Christina Cortese lacked clear evidence to claim Robert A. Naify's inheritance.

Shortly after, Cortese's lawyer, Holland & Knight LLP partner Stacie P. Nelson, filed a motion for mistrial alleging attorney misconduct.

"The overview of it was a change of testimony," Nelson said, who also claimed the opposing party turned over 16 boxes of documents after the trial that was requested during discovery. "As well as turning over some of the evidence to a third party that we cannot get back, and there's no tracing that."

Naify owned the movie theater chain United Artists Theaters. Naify's family started fighting over the billion-dollar inheritance following his death in 2016. Among his assets was a golf course in Marbella, Spain he purchased in 1987. Cortese claimed Naify promised her the golf course, where she worked as a general manager between 2006 and 2009.

Naify fired her because she mishandled the golf course, according to court documents filed by her opponents.

According to Cortese, Naify made several oral promises to her starting in 1996. She said he told her he would divide his estate equally among his three biological children and Cortese. He also promised her the golf course and that she would be made a "very wealthy woman" following his death, Cortese claimed.

Ulmer wrote in June that Cortese lacked clear evidence to claim the inheritance whereas Naify had decades of documents that never treated her as equal to his biological children. Cortese v. Sherwood, PTR16299823 (S.F. Sup. Ct., filed May 23, 2016).

But with Nelson filing a motion for mistrial and terminating sanctions, Ulmer has agreed to hear the motions on Oct. 1.

The co-trustees of Naify's estate were represented by Bartko Zankel Bunzel & Miller in San Francisco.

"We believe the Court accurately and properly rejected Christina Cortese's oral inheritance claims in its June 28 Statement of Decision," Benjamin K. Riley, principal at Bartko Zankel Bunzel & Miller, said in a statement. "Petitioner's assertions regarding post-trial discovery issues have no basis and we will seek entry of judgment at the next court hearing in accordance with the Court's prior factual findings."