The battle for Anne Heche’s estate is far from over.
Heche’s eldest son, Homer Laffoon, this week filed new court documents challenging the validity of a 2011 email his mother allegedly sent ex-boyfriend James Tupper to name him executor of her estate.
The 20-year-old insists the email “does not meet the legal requirements for a valid formal witness will” because it “was not signed by [Heche] and has no two witnesses who signed the document during [her] lifetime.”
“Mr. Tupper repeatedly refers to the email… as a ‘will.’ But — legally speaking — the email does not qualify as a holographic will or a formal will,” he wrote in his file, which was obtained by Page six.
Therefore, Laffoon states that he is “the person with the highest appointment priority” and is “legally entitled to appoint as administrator”.
In addition, he claims it was “not uncommon” for his mother to “send emails like the one attached…when faced with uncertainty. In reality, [Heche] sent a similar email to her accountant on April 7, 2020, after [she] Covid-19 contracted.”
“This document, which cannot be classified as a will on the same basis as the email… does not refer in any way to Mr Tupper, which is not surprising given their acrimonious breakup in 2018,” Laffoon argues.
After Heche’s death on August 12, Laffoon petitioned to be named executor of the estate, requesting that he and his half-brother, Atlas, be listed as their mother’s sole heirs.
However, Tupper – who fathered 13-year-old son Atlas with Heche – filed documents claiming that the late star had sent him an email that read: “FYI in case I die tomorrow and someone asks My wish is that all my possessions go to Mr. James Tupper to be used to raise my children and then give to the children.”
In his file, Tupper, 57, further argued that Laffoon is “not fit” to run Heche’s estate, pointing to his young age, lack of work and estranged relationship with his mother when she died.
The actor further claimed that Laffoon changed the locks of Heche’s apartment, which she shared with Atlas, and prevented the teenager from accessing his belongings inside.
Tupper also claimed that the half-brothers have had no contact since Heche’s death on August 12.
In his new filing, Laffoon calls Tupper’s allegations “baseless personal attacks” and “frivolous legal claims.”
Heche – who shared Laffoon with ex-husband, Coleman Laffoon – died aged 53 after a horrific car accident on August 5 that left her in a coma with severe burns and critical injuries. She was later taken off the ventilator and her organs were donated.
The Los Angeles County coroner’s office cited a sternal rupture from blunt force trauma as a contributing factor to her death, which was ruled accidental.