SmashMouth

Renee Benson has asked a federal judge to move her Texas lawsuit against her father, Saints and Pelicans owner Tom Benson, back to a state probate court as she seeks to remove the 87-year-old as trustee overseeing a collection of San Antonio car dealerships and other assets.

Earlier this year, Bexar County Probate Judge Tom Rickhoff appointed two receivers to temporarily replace Tom Benson as trustee over the Shirley Benson estate trust in San Antonio. Renee Benson is seeking to have her father permanently removed, part of feud over ownership succession of the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans and other family wealth.

The Texas case landed in federal court after the receivers, former San Antonio Mayor Phil Hardberger and esetate lawyer Art Bayern intervened in Renee Benson's case with their own lawsuit.



In response, Tom Benson's lawyers got the case moved to U.S. District Court in San Antonio, arguing that the lawsuit now involved Benson personally rather than in his role as trustee -- which meant the lawsuit now involved Benson as a Louisiana resident and the receivers in Texas, making federal court appropriate.

At the request of Rickhoff, the receivers dropped their intervening lawsuit one week later.

Renee Benson's lawyers on Thursday (April 9) asked U.S. District Judge David Ezra to move her case back to Rickhoff's courtroom, arguing that Tom Benson did not seek to move the case to federal court when it first began.

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