The singer Don Ho is not making any more songs after his death, but he appears to be making some interesting new law. Ho’s daughter, Dondi Ho-Costa has filed a lawsuit alleging that he violated a deathbed promise made to her mother in 1999 over Lanikai beachfront property.
The promise was allegedly made to Ho’s first wife, Melva, raised Ho’s first six children. The promise was to leave the house for her benefit and that of her children. The problem is that Ho had as many wives and kids as hit records. When he died, the house went to a trust benefitting Ho’s first six children as well as four children from two other mothers, including Ho’s second wife, Haumea, and his longtime friend Liz Guevara. The property is worth $6.8 million.
It will present a fascinating case. The verbal contract had witnesses but appears superseded in a later instrument. Such cases are rarely wrong when a written contract or trust stands in conflict. However, it is not impossible.
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Almost as confusing as, (forgive me!), “Ho’s on first?”!
The real truth is that Haumea was fooling around with Don Ho’s tax attorney, Chuck Rettig. Chuck tried to help Haumea steal Don Ho’s estate from his family. He is an IRS tax litigator and counsel for tax fraud, who told Don that he would save millions of dollars in taxes if he got married AND give back the assets to his family tax free after he dies- legal misrepresentation and malpractice at the root of the problem. As a result, the family was just trying to stop the stealing of all his assets, which is currently still in progress….
I know of Chuck’s girlfriend. Is there any proof for your claim that he and Haumea were fooling around? And what is the status and resolution of this dispute?