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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Loeb & Loeb Planner Testifies in Dodger Trial

LOS ANGELES (CN) - In the divorce trial to determine ownership of the L.A. Dodgers, an estate planning lawyer testified last week that wife Jamie McCourt did not understand how a marital property agreement worked. Leah Bishop with Loeb & Loeb said that husband Frank McCourt told her that someone needed to talk sense into his wife. "He said that she thinks she can run the team and that's a total disconnect with reality," Bishop testified.

Jamie's attorney Michael Kump with Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert asked Bishop what the word "deal" meant on her notes.

Bishop answered that it meant the McCourts agreed to separate their assets -- Frank McCourt got the business assets while Jamie McCourt got the homes.

Bishop further testified that Frank said his wife was not his business partner and in fact became Vice President of Dodgers for publicity value. "He needed to run the business and he doesn't have the luxury of time," said estate planner Bishop.

Representing husband Frank, Steven Susman with Susman Godfrey asked Bishop asked if she had assumed that the McCourts had separated their assets. "You assumed that Frank owned the Dodgers and Jamie did not?" Susman asked Bishop.

"That's correct," she answered.

He also attacked through his questions the notion that Jamie did not understand the marital property agreement she had initiated.

"Did you have any reason to believe that they were incapable of understanding the documents?" Susman asked. Bishop replied no.

Bishop testified that there was a fundamental misunderstanding between husband and wife about the community property. She testified that her goal was to make sure that both of them understood what community property was and agreed on how they separated their assets.

Bishop said it was a watershed event when she realized the two didn't understand the documents they had signed. "The lightbulb went off," she testified.

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