Media mogul Sumner Redstone is incapacitated and needs a guardian ad litem to protect his interests in a current legal case, a judge determined Monday during a hearing in a long-running court dispute about the health of the controlling shareholder of CBS and Viacom.
The court's finding does not reflect on Redstone's competency, however. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David J. Cowan said his finding was based on an opinion by Redstone's doctor on the mogul's dysarthria, a severe speech impediment.
"The bottom line, essentially, is the court is finding that Mr. Redstone incapacitated _ but not because he is incompetent," Cowan said.
Redstone, in his limited capacity, consented to the determination.
Cowan will now decide who should serve as the 95-year-old billionaire's guardian ad litem.
Monday's hearing came in litigation initially pursued by Manuela Herzer, one of Redstone's former female companions. Once part of Redstone's orbit, Herzer was kicked out of Redstone's Beverly Park mansion in October 2015 and later written out of his estate plan. Herzer tried unsuccessfully to restore her standing as an agent for Redstone and secure a place in his will, which would put her in line for tens of millions of dollars from his estate.
Herzer withdrew her lawsuit, but in April, Redstone filed his own petition to preserve changes made in May 2016 that removed Herzer from his trust. The May 2016 change marked the 40th amendment to Redstone's trust, which maps out his wishes about how his property should be divided up and his empire run long after he is gone.
Herzer's legal team challenged Redstone's petition, contending that the mogul had lost his mental competence and that lawyers who surround him don't really know what he wants.
