The widow of the former chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures filed court papers Monday asking that his trust be modified or reformed to provide her and their 2-year-old child with the support they believed he intended before his death in May.
Cassandra Huysentruyt Grey, who was married to Brad Grey, brought the Los Angeles Superior Court petition on behalf of herself and toddler son.
Grey, who established his trust in May 2008, was 59 years old when he died May 14 from cancer at his Holmby Hills home. He stepped down from his post at Paramount in February after leading the studio for 12 years.
Grey and his wife married in 2011 and their son was their only child. He also had three children from a prior marriage.
“Brad generously provided for Cassandra and his children while he was alive and wanted nothing more than for them to be well taken care of after his death,” the petition states.
However, Grey’s “clear and unmistakable intent” to financially support his wife and youngest child as he did when he was alive was not reflected in his attorneys’ drafting of a 2017 restatement of the trust that put restrictions on distributions that he never intended, according to the petition.
“These distributions are a small fraction of the amount that Brad intended for his wife and minor child,” the petition states. “Had Brad known and understood the effect of such restrictions, he would not have agreed to them as written at all.”
At the time the trust provisions in question were drafted and signed, Grey was “continuing a long battle with cancer and had delegated the authority to prepare his estate plan” to his attorneys and business manager, according to the petition.
“Accordingly, whether due to mistake, fraud or constructive fraud, undue influence or other grounds, the trust should be reformed or modified to carry out Brad’s intentions…,” the petition states.
A hearing on the petition is scheduled for Jan. 4.
Among the films produced during Grey’s time at Paramount were the “Transformers” and “Iron Man” franchises, “An Inconvenient Truth,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Shutter Island” and “Mission: Impossible III.” He also helped bring to cable television such series as “The Sopranos” and “Real Time With Bill Maher.”
–City News Service