By LARRY ROHTER
In a decision likely to significantly affect the long-running dispute over James Brown’s estate, a judge in South Carolina has ruled that Tommie Rae Hynie Brown is the widow of the singer, known as the Godfather of Soul.
If the ruling stands, Mrs. Brown could be entitled to a share of the Brown estate, which by some estimates is valued at as much as $100 million.
Mrs. Brown’s exact marital status has been at issue since Mr. Brown died on Christmas Day 2006. She and the singer were married in 2001, but he filed for an annulment in 2004, after learning that she was already married to another man. The validity of that earlier marriage, to Javed Ahmed, an immigrant who needed an American spouse to allow him to remain in the country, was called into question, however, on the ground that he already had several wives in his home country.
“All bigamous marriages are void” from the start, Judge Doyet Early III wrote in a 46-page ruling. And because Mr. Brown in 2004 abandoned his effort to have his own marriage to Mrs. Brown annulled, “he was married to Mrs. Brown at the time of his death,” the judge found.
“We are obviously very happy with this result,” Mrs. Brown’s lawyer, Robert Rosen, said in a telephone interview. “My client has been maligned throughout this process, but she is the wife and has now been declared the wife.”
Whether Mrs. Brown will actually gain a share of the Brown estate remains to be determined. Mr. Brown stated in his will, written in 2000, that he wished to leave the bulk of his estate, including copyrights to more than 800 songs and about 100 albums, to a trust that would provide scholarships to needy children, and specifically excluded his heirs, including any wife, from receiving those assets.
Mrs. Brown also signed a pre-nuptial agreement in which she renounced any potential claims to the estate. But those issues, along with many others, have not been adjudicated, and Mr. Rosen indicated a willingness to pursue an out-of-court agreement with other interested parties, who include Mr. Brown’s children.
