Suit Accuses Von Bulow of Attempting to Kill Wife, Asks Inheritance Cutoff
Claus von Bulow was named in a $56-million federal civil court suit Friday charging him with trying to kill his heiress wife with insulin and asking that he be cut off from her estimated $75-million fortune.
The legal action represents the third time that Von Bulow has faced charges alleging that he caused Martha (Sunny) von Bulow’s 1979 and 1980 comas. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, was brought by Mrs. Von Bulow’s children by a previous marriage, Alexander von Auersperg and Annie-Laurie Kneissl.
Von Auersperg and Kneissl are suing on behalf of their comatose mother and asking that any punitive and compensatory damages be directed back to her estate, of which they are beneficiaries.
The suit seeks to have Von Bulow removed from his wife’s trust fund and asks for restitution of any money he has received from her estate since 1979.
Von Bulow, who was cleared in his wife’s death earlier this year, could not be reached for comment.
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