In an unanimous ruling on Wednesday, the state’s justices wrote that Tomi Rae Hynie, a former partner of Brown’s who claimed to be his wife, failed to annul a previous marriage, and therefore did not have a right to his multimillion-dollar estate.
Wednesday’s ruling dealt another blow to a deal brokered by Gov. Henry McMaster who, as South Carolina’s attorney general, stepped in to facilitate a 2009 settlement after Brown’s estate had been floundering in court for years.
In that 2013 ruling, justices wrote McMaster hadn’t followed Brown’s expressed wishes for most of his money to go to charity, having instead selected a professional manager who took control of Brown’s assets from the estate’s trustees to settle Brown’s debts.
Writing that McMaster’s deal “destroys the estate plan Brown had established in favor of an arrangement overseen virtually exclusively by the AG,” the court also ruled then that the Godfather of Soul was of sound mind when he made his will before his death.
Finally on Wednesday, the justices ruled that Hynie has no claims on the money, and ordered a circuit court to “promptly proceed with the probate of Brown’s estate in accordance with his estate plan.”
