• 22
  • September
    2011

The famous comedian and member of the Rat Pack, Joey Bishop, had an estate worth around $8 million when he died in 2007 at the age of 89. More than twenty years earlier, the then-66-year-old Bishop met a 16-year-old girl named Nora Garibotti. Later, Garibotti would claim that she and Bishop had a romantic live-in relationship late in Bishop's life.

Bishop's will left a large amount of money to Garibotti, but the will was contested by a Jewish community center that claimed the center should have a large portion of Bishop's estate.

Florida contested will attorneys noted from news reports that in 2009 a court approved a settlement that gave Garibotti 70 percent of Bishop's estate.

Now, though, Garibotti is essentially contesting the contesting of the will. She is suing the lawyers who brought the case that led to her receiving less than she expected from Bishop's estate.

In 2008, Garibotti sued another law firm over the same issue. That case settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. One might speculate, though, that Garibotti received enough in that first settlement to make another lawsuit on a similar issue seem promising.

Garibotti's new lawsuit alleges that the community center's lawyers brought their will contest suit not because the case had merit, but in an effort to force a settlement.

Source: Thomson Reuters News & Insight "Joey Bishop friend sues Gordon & Rees over will" Sept. 15, 2011