An unusual open letter to the population of Aruba from Ms. B.H., a resident of Aruba, born and raised here by Aruban parents, baffled readers of a local daily newspaper, how come the heirs to a huge family fortune, keep suing each other in court and attempt to involve the incredulous public, in the washing of their private dirty laundry, in the open, when they could all sip frozen pina coladas on a tropical island and work on their tans.
The open letter baffled locals for the childish, immature language it employed, and for the silly notion that we care and would at once take sides, staying away from an upcoming real estate auction, in the office of a local notary.
The letter was asking the public NOT to attend an auction, in order to protect the heir’s rights, and prevent the sale of a property.
That was very naïve last resort strategy.
The drama behind the open letter isn’t pretty. It’s hard to comprehend how family members feud, and refuse to come to terms with each other, even on a tiny island. In doing so they take down business empires.
Let’s say two people got married in community of goods and made a ton of money during their blissful union, 1936 – 1979. The Panama papers paint a network of seventeen different companies, under the same ownership. The man died at an old age, leaving the empire to his wife, as the sole heir, in order to keep the business going, intact. By doing so he disinherited four kids, but in turn, at the end of her life, mom was supposed to equally divide all assets among four children and their heirs.
Two kids were cool with the arrangement. One negotiated a fair settlement and the youngest sued mom. Eventually, mom agreed to negotiate an arrangement with her youngest, based on the mutually agreed value of the company, at the time, 10M dollar.
But mom undervalued the amount, greatly.
This is what the supreme court verdict quotes: “At the time of my husband’s death, the estate consisted of, among other things, various real estate, in and outside Aruba, balances in bank accounts, securities and the like at banks in Panama, Switzerland, Israel, etc. Luxembourg and America. Some assets of the estate were not held directly in name but through mainly foreign Panamanian companies. This fortune represented, as far as I can remember, a value of more than one hundred million United States dollars. During the dissolution of the marital community of goods and the division of my husband’s estate in the eighties, I did not disclose all the assets of the estate, a result of which the estate was valued much lower, and my children M & H received much less than they were entitled to.”
Because H originally received a much lower share of the estate, he sued the estate. Then mom in order to make good, and apologize, appointed him to the executor of her will.
He was put in charge of the whole kit and caboodle and was given five years to settle things and share all assets with all heirs.
He did not. During his time as executor of the will, he did everything possible to delay, in his mind, mom concealed foreign assets from him during the division, and he went all the way to the supreme court to prove that the lion’s share of the inheritance belong to him, and that others should get much less.
During his lifetime in general, he stuck to the belief that others should get less. When La Linda department store went bankrupt, employees were left hanging, some after 50 years of uninterrupted service.
Anyway, H did not win the extra 80M florin, as plaintiff in claim, defendant in counterclaim, appellant in principal appeal and respondent in incidental appeal.
But he died with his convictions at the age of 71, in 2021, and a lawyer, J.D.C., was named the trustee. That lawyer has been trying for the past EIGHT years to negotiate with the warring family factions, split into two hostile camps.
My sources say all lawyers have profited greatly from decades of disputes.
The unusual open letter to the population of Aruba was written by a member of the third generation, the owner of Veterinary & Pet Care services of Ponton, burdened by accumulating penalties because of her father’s refusal to abide with court orders.
She would have gotten sympathy, but in her letter, she makes direct attacks, by name, on a judge and a number of lawyers, accusing them of conspiring against her, her brother and two other family members, which discredited her position at once.
A lawyer friend points out that her father, H., set out to disinherit others, and as a result, his own daughter is now losing her assets.
Remember: Le Linda closing, a column I wrote in December 2018.
