Actress Anne Heche died on August 14, 2022 at the age of 53, after a high speed, fiery car crash in Los Angeles that resulted in a coma and her subsequent death.
Homer Laffoon, the actress’ oldest son, has been granted management of his mother’s estate.
A judge appointed Laffoon as impartial administrator after a several-month battle with James Tupper, an ex-boyfriend of Anne Heche. Tupper had a biological child with the actress.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lee Bogdanoff granted the management to Heche’s adult son Homer Laffoon and dismissed Tupper’s allegations that Laffoon was ineligible to manage the estate because he is too young, jobless, and was estranged from his mother at the time of her death.
Tupper also made an accusation that a $200,000 jewelry collection was missing due to Laffoon’s poor management of the estate. Tupper said that after Heche passed away, Laffoon took a while to secure his mother’s property. The judge said that Tupper’s claim was unreasonable and did not grant a hearing about it.
Tupper also said that Heche had named him as executor of the estate via en email in 2011. In the email, she allegedly gave Tupper control of her assets, to be used to take care of her two children, each of whom would get half of her estate when they turned 25. The email was not considered to be a legal will, because no documentation supporting the email was submitted. Laffoon claimed that his mother died without leaving a will and that he was “legally entitled to appointment as administrator.”
One of the problems Laffoon and his lawyers will have to deal with as the executor of his mother’s estate is demands by creditors and others suing the estate. Thomas Jane, an actor, says he loaned Heche $157,000, and that she still owed $149,000 with interest and late penalties at the time of her death. Lynne Mishele, the woman whose house was destroyed when Heche crashed her Mini Cooper, is suing the Heche estate for about $2 million. Mishele is demanding compensation for “negligence, infliction of mental distress, and trespass.”
A hearing is scheduled for March 15 to determine how much collateral Laffoon must set aside to pay the demands on the estate. It was temporarily decided to place $800,000 in collateral until the March hearing.
