An attorney representing the estate of the late Kirk Kerkorian scoffed Wednesday at a lawsuit by a woman who claims Kerkorian promised her $20 million if she agreed to be his companion.

“We don’t think it has any merit,” lawyer Patricia Glaser said.

The contents of Vanessa Sandin’s Los Angeles Superior Court breach-of- agreement suit, filed Tuesday, are blacked out for the most part. However, in a creditor’s claim filed in January, the real estate agent said she revised her work and child care schedules to accommodate her commitment to Kerkorian in the last year of his life.

“Beginning in or about June 2014, Ms. Sandin spent a few hours virtually every day providing Mr. Kerkorian with companionship in Mr. Kerkorian’s home,” Sandin’s creditor’s claim papers state.

The creditor’s claim was rejected in March by Kerkorian estate executor Anthony Mandekic, the secretary-treasurer of Kerkorian’s Tracinda Corp. He was left $7 million in the businessman’s will and is the lone defendant in Sandin’s lawsuit.

According to the creditor’s claim, by the fall of 2014 Kerkorian asked Sandin to increase the time she spent with him and “informed her that he would make sure that she was well cared for and would never have to work again, by providing for her at least the amount of $20 million,” Sandin’s court papers stated.

Sandin eventually increased the time she spent with Kerkorian until his death last June 15 at age 98, according to the creditor claim papers, which say Kerkorian “benefited greatly from Ms. Sandin’s companionship.”

Sandin says she found out that despite his assurances to her, Kerkorian’s estate planning documents did not include any provisions for her.

“Ms. Sandin would suffer unconscionable injury and it would be inequitable if Mr. Kerkorian’s promise to provide for her were not enforced,” the petitioner’s creditor claim stated.

Kerkorian’s developments on the Las Vegas Strip included the MGM and MGM Grand hotels. He also invested in and operated businesses in a number of industries, including airlines, automakers, Chrysler Corp., General Motors and film studios.

He purchased MGM Studios three times, bought United Artists and tried to acquire Columbia Pictures.

—City News Service

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