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Estate dispute is settled out of court An estate dispute that accused Jackson lawyer and circuit judge nominee Stuart C. DuBose of malpractice and other improprieties was settled in Mobile Circuit Court Monday as preparations were being made to seat a jury for a trial. The estate is that of the late Joseph L. Sullivan of Washington County. Court records have shown that it had a value of $2.5 million or more. Most details were not disclosed but information from an order signed by the judge in the case, Mobile County Circuit Judge John Lockett, indicates DuBose was named sole executor of the state and was authorized to execute the will "and conclude all matters necessary in that endeavor and in the settlement agreement." In addition, the order says "the attorney's fees and administrator fees according to the estate tax return in the amounts of $969,992 and $127,630, are reasonable and necessary." DuBose had prepared a will for Sullivan, at the request of DuBose's client, Weaver, with Sullivan leaving the entire estate to Weaver and making her executrix and DuBose successor executor. Sullivan died not long after signing the document. Weaver later signed an agreement agreeing to pay Dubose 33 percent of any estate settlement if there was no lawsuit filed concerning it, 40 percent if a lawsuit was successfully defended and 50 percent if it moved to an appellate court level. The will was contested by Sullivan's late sister but was settled. DuBose and Weaver got into an argument over DuBose's legal fee that led in part to the estate dispute. Weaver did not want to pay the 40 percent fee that she had initially agreed to. The question of DuBose having prepared the will without ever meeting or talking to Sullivan about the matter was brought up too. At least one outside attorney, hired to look at the case by Weaver's lawyers, said DuBose breached the "standards of care" that attorneys are ethically bound to adhere to. The case initially started in Washington County. Local judges Harold Crow and Thomas Baxter recused themselves because DuBose was a practicing attorney in the circuit and Judge Lockett was appointed to the case. After DuBose won the Democratic nomination for the judge's seat being vacated by the retiring Crow in June, Lockett moved the case to Mobile, citing concerns that people who might be picked as jurors could in the future have cases before DuBose. He also was concerned about the perception that there could be "two judges in the courtroom" if the case was tried in Chatom.
The stalemate between DuBose and Weaver became so bad that Judge Lockett removed both of them as co-executors in June and appointed J. Randall Crane as "Administrator with the Will Annexed." That action was reversed with Monday's settlement when DuBose was named executor.
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