LOS ANGELES (CN) - Sumner Redstone's granddaughter Keryn Redstone has applied to join a lawsuit challenging his competency to make his own health care decisions.
Redstone's ex-girlfriend and former caretaker Manuela Herzer filed a petition in Superior Court late last year, claiming the 92-year-old majority shareholder of CBS and Viacom was mentally incapacitated when he revoked a Sept. 3, 2015 advance health directive.
Redstone's attorneys have asked a judge to dismiss Herzer's claims, saying Redstone is capable of making his health care decisions and that the probate case intrudes on his privacy.
On Tuesday, Keryn Redstone, 34, filed an application to join Herzer's lawsuit, her attorneys said. Keryn is the daughter of Redstone's son Brent, who has feuded with his father and sister Shari over his stake in his father's company, National Amusements. Brent sued National Amusements in the dispute but settled the case in 2007.
In a declaration executed on April 14, Keryn describes in detail her ties to Redstone, who she calls "Grumpy," as well as the ailing mogul's allegedly contentious relationship with Shari, who according to court documents is now Redstone's health care agent.
Keryn says that she began to notice that her grandfather's health was deteriorating in mid-2014. In her 12-page declaration, Keryn says that at Redstone's 91st birthday he asked her to sit next to him so she could help him eat, as he had injured his hand and was having trouble swallowing food.
"Shari demanded that I change seats with her, so she could sit next to Grumpy. I declined because Grumpy speci?cally asked me to be next to him to help him eat. Shari erupted and threatened to kill me," the declaration states.
After Redstone was hospitalized with pneumonia in September 2014, Keryn says, she visited him in a hospital and heard Shari screaming in her grandfather's hospital room. She says she learned later that Shari was "objecting to the movement of the feeding tube from his [Redstone's] nose to his stomach, based on her religious beliefs."
"I clearly heard Shari state her beliefs as to what should happen to Grumpy. She said, 'If he gets sick, don't take him to the hospital. Let him die at home.' Grumpy, being Grumpy, interjected - 'I don't want to die!' Shari proceeded as if Grumpy were not there and as if he had not just expressed his will to live, stating: 'He wants to die at home. Don't call the doctors.' Shari similarly pushed for a 'do not resuscitate' order to which Grumpy vehemently objected," the declaration states.
Herzer's petition, filed in November, claimed the ailing mogul was incapacitated when he revoked a Sept. 3, 2015 advance health directive.
According to Herzer, Redstone - who is worth more than $5 billion - was under the "undue influence" of his estate planning attorney Leah Bishop when a new health care directive was created on Oct 16.
Herzer describes herself as the ailing Viacom executive's "longtime friend, companion and caretaker" and says she moved into Redstone's home more than two years ago. She began to take care of his medical needs after his relationship with Sydney Holland, his girlfriend of five years, came to an end last year, Herzer says.
Keryn says in her declaration that Redstone "adored" Herzer. After Herzer was forced out of her grandfather's residence it became a "prison," she says. By the time of her last visit, she says, Redstone's nurse had limited her interactions with her grandfather to 15 minutes at a time.
She says she has not seen Redstone since February and that attorney Bishop told her she could see Redstone only if she signed a loyalty letter siding with Redstone in Herzer's case. She says she did sign it, but Bishop backed away from the agreement.
"I know his condition has continued to worsen and I want nothing more than to see him again. If I could ask two things of the court, they would be this: (a) Can I see my Grumpy? and (b) Please protect my Grumpy," her declaration states.
Herzer has filed an application to amend her petition and to seek a neurological examination of Redstone.
The case is scheduled to go to trial in May.
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