A Brooklyn nurse has to pay back $6.7 million in gifts from the copper heiress she long cared for and lost out on an ašdditional $30 million bequest ā and thatās fine by her.
āThe Peri family is very happy to contributše to the settlement,āā 63-year-old retired nurse Hadassah Peri said in a statement Tuesday.
Attorneys in the estate battle over Huguette Clarkās $300 million fortuneš¶ finalized a settlement deal Tuesday that will give her family $34.ļ·½5 million and memorialize her love for the arts at a California foundation.
The agreement establishes an arts and cultural nonprofit at Clarkās $85 million Santa Barbara mansion Bellosguaź¦rdo. The foundation also gets the heiressās beloved $1.7 million doll collection that was originally gifted to her nurse and $4.5 āmillion in cash.
The $34.5 million will be split among 20 of the childless heiressās distant relatives.ąµ© Clarkās goddaughter Wanda Styka won a $3.5 million bequest.
The Clark family applauded the Peri payback and the stripping of almost $1 millioš§øn to their auntās other staffāattorney Wallace Bock and accountant Irving Kamsler.
āBy removing Wallace Bock and Irving Kamsler from their positions as executors, and having Hadassah Peri return a significant amount of money, the settlement sends a strong mš§essage that those entrusted with the care of the elderly will be held accountable for their actions,ā the family said inš§ a statement released by their attorney, John Morken of Farrell Fitz.
Morkenās firm won a tidy $11.5 million in fees from the šdeal, the same amount awarded to attoš„rneys for Bock from the national firm Holland Knight. Periās lawyer will get $1.5 million. Thatās a total $24.5 million in legal fees.
The Peri payback includes Clarkās doll collection plus $5 million, but returning the gifts will free the nurse from any future lš¬awsuits related to Clark. Peri received a total $31 million from Clark during her lifetime including a Jersey Shoą“re vacation home though she worked 12-hour days, seven days a week from 1991 to 2005.
Beth Israel Hospital, where Clark lived out the last 20 years of hź¦er life until she died at age 104 in 2011, will get to keep a $1 million gift from the contested will, however, it will not be immune to potential, future litigation.
The financially strapped Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.– where Clarkās father, mining king and Sen. W.A. Clark gave many charitable gifts during his lifetime– will receive $10 million plus half the proceeds from the sale of a $25 million Claude Monet painting called āWater Lillies.
Other payments include $100,00 for Clarkās physician Dr. Henry Singman, $500,000 to her assistant Christopher Sattler, a yearās salary to the caretaker of her New Canaan mansion and two years pay tš§øo the manager of Bellosguardo.