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Outbursts in court, secret recordings: Inside look at Tom Benson family's legal battle

It was the 2014 Christmas season, and 87-year-old Tom Benson was growing more forgetful, thanks in part to pain medication he was taking after a series of recent knee surgeries.

Family tensions were running high, too. Rita LeBlanc, Benson’s granddaughter, had been feuding with his wife, Gayle. It had gotten so bad that Gayle had written up a list reminding the twice-widowed Benson why he should be aggrieved – not just toward Rita, but also his grandson Ryan and his daughter Renee.

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Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the family patriarch, Rita had secretly recorded a conversation she had with him about why her mother, Renee, had contacted Benson’s bookkeeper directly, instead of going through him.

It was amid this poisonous climate that the owner of the NFL’s Saints and NBA’s Pelicans finally decided to cut out the “3 R’s” – Rita, Renee and Ryan – and make Gayle the heir to his billion-dollar business empire.

The move, which seemed sudden to the public, kicked off a convoluted legal battle pitting Benson against his daughter and her children, who once had been in position to inherit everything but were now fired from their jobs and cut off from the head of their family.

The most bitter episode of the saga was their unsuccessful attempt to convince a New Orleans civil court judge that he should restore their standing with Benson on the grounds that he was too mentally enfeebled to alter his succession plans.

That case largely played out in secret. Judge Kern Reese prohibited attorneys from speaking about it, and the proceedings included a highly unusual, closed-door trial that took place over eight days in June 2015. Nearly all of the pleadings were kept under seal.

Reese ultimately ruled against the LeBlancs and in favor of Benson, the state’s richest man. Two higher courts left that decision in place, paving the way for Gayle to take over the Saints and Pelicans following her husband’s death in March at age 90.

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Benson did not face questioning from either side’s attorneys. Instead, Reese interviewed Benson at Saints headquarters, which the LeBlancs’ legal team argued was strange, if not unprecedented.

Experts have said the LeBlancs have five years to challenge the validity of a will that Benson’s camp filed in court shortly after his death. The will appears to make Gayle his prime beneficiary and excludes the estranged relatives by name.

Such a challenge would likely revive some of the arguments and evidence that Reese considered.

The will was signed a month after Reese ruled in Benson’s favor. A day after his death, Benson’s camp filed it with Reese.

The Saints on Thursday kicked off their first training camp with Gayle Benson as owner.

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