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A San Antonio probate judge overseeing one of the Tom Benson family legal fights over the Saints owner's fortune said in a letter this month that the 87-year-old billionaire "is at war with himself."

Bexar County Probate Judge Tom Rickhoff wrote the March 9 letter, recently filed in federal court in San Antonio, to the two receivers he appointed to temporarily replace Benson as trustee of a trust benefiting his daughter Renee Benson.

The letter further reveals the judge's take on the entire Benson family feud playing out in courtrooms in Texas and Louisiana.

"What is this litigation?" Rickhoff said. "It is Tom Benson (2011) versus Tom Benson (2014). He is at war with himself. No one is trying to 'take' anything. He, Tom Benson (2011) already dedicated the bulk of his wealth. Everything is in the I.T. (irrevocable trust) he, Tom Benson (2011) created. Now, Tom Benson (2014) changed his mind. Who cares why.

"But, he cannot," the judge continued. "Big businessmen are still just like all of us and cannot just sign whatever they want and think if it goes south 'I'll just litigate.'"

Rickhoff, in telling the receivers to drop a legal action against Tom Benson, said the Benson family litigation "has reached the Dickensian kerfuffle door where litigation endlessly seeks side corridors."

Co-receivers Phil Hardberger, former mayor of San Antonio, and estate lawyer Art Bayern moved this week for a voluntary dismissal of their intervention in the San Antonio case, in which Renee Benson is seeking to have her father permanently removed as trustee over the Shirley Benson estate trust. The trust holds interests in Lone Star Capital Bank, San Antonio car dealerships and real estate.



Tom Benson family feud: San Antonio judge says Saints owner 'at war with himself' | NOLA.com

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