James Brown Battle May Be Finally Ending

A two-year battle over the estate of James Brown may finally be coming to an end on Friday in a Columbia, South Carolina court.

It is expected that a judge will approve a settlement that would divide Brown's remaining assets and turn over the rights to his music and likeness. Half of the assets will go to a charitable trust to help educate his grandchildren and other needy students in South Carolina and Georgia. The other half would be divided between his surviving spouse and some of his adult children.

The fact is that the future rights to his recordings and likeness is probably worth much more than the assets. Over the two years, much of it has been spent in legal wrangling along with unpaid debts, shady accounting and a general mishandling of the money which led to many changes in his trustees.

Lewis Levenson, who represented the adult children, said "Rather than take the delay, rather than pay the cost and rather than risk an all-or-nothing outcome, the parties who were most interested . . . elected the wiser course, which was a settlement."

Part of the settlement finally proclaims Tomi Rae Hynie as Brown's last wife and her son as one of Brown's children. Hynie's lawyer, Robert Rosen, added "To have it over and to basically have the court declare that she's the wife and James is the son will be the most wonderful thing that can happen to her. She's been through two years of real anguish."