Daughter of Leisure World Founder Seeks Inheritance : Estate: Ross Cortese supported child from 1960s affair but wrote her out of his will before he died.

Tucked in Orange County probate court files are glimpses of a fleeting father-daughter relationship between Leisure World founder Ross W. Cortese and Hillary Jade Cortese.

A birthday card to Jade is attached with love from “Dad.” On Valentine’s Day, greetings go to “our little sugar plum.” Other letters and cards contain money: $500 for school clothes; $1,500 for Christmas gifts; an unspecified amount for making the honor roll.

A wedding gift in 1985, when she married Paul Pedersen, is a car, given with “love, luck, and much happiness” from “Ross.”

Now 32, Hillary Jade Pedersen has filed a petition with the court to share in Cortese’s estate, which according to his 1987 will was to be divided only among his first wife, Alona, second wife, Eloise, and daughter, Heidi.

Cortese, the builder of 24,000 upscale retirement units in Leisure World developments in Seal Beach, Laguna Hills and four other states, died in October, 1991.

“All references in this will to ‘my daughter’ shall refer to Hedwig Cortese Marxen,” or Heidi, according to Cortese’s will. “I have no other living or deceased children.”

Pedersen, who lives with her husband and three children in Huntington Beach, is the daughter of Cortese and Ruth Elaine Hall, his company’s longtime decorator with whom Cortese had an affair in the 1960s. Throughout the years, court records show, Pedersen received gifts and her mother was paid limited child support.

Last September, Pedersen filed a petition claiming to be an “omitted heir,” and said she was entitled to 25% of her father’s estate.

Her court petition was amended in March, and after several hearings were postponed, the matter is scheduled to be heard in Orange County Superior Court Aug. 11.

Attorneys for the executor of the estate, William V. March, do not contest the claim that Pedersen is Cortese’s daughter. But they say she is not entitled to any of Cortese’s money.

“The estate’s contention is that the language of (Cortese’s) will is that it excludes her,” said Theodore I. Wallace Jr., the executor’s lawyer. “There are specific provisions in his will in which he disinherits any heirs not mentioned in his will. It is our position that she is disinherited.”

The will specifically states that Cortese “generally and expressly disinherits” anyone claiming to be an heir who is not included in his will or as part of his trusts.

Even if Pedersen succeeds in gaining a piece of her father’s estate, a larger question looms as to how much it is worth.

Court papers listing an inventory of the estate show that it consists of a rare coin collection, a few hundred shares of stock and a few savings bonds. Total worth: $5,347.

Wallace said that before his death, Cortese transferred the bulk of his worth into several trusts, which are no longer part of the estate. Pedersen’s attorneys believe Cortese’s assets are worth between $300 million and $500 million.

Pedersen has made no attempt to gain part of the trusts, Wallace said. Pedersen and her attorney could not be reached for comment.

By the time Cortese died at age 74, he had built homes for about 40,000 middle-aged and elderly people in retirement communities that were so popular that 10,000 more units were constructed after his death.

A onetime fruit peddler and high school dropout, Cortese came to California from Ohio and grew up in Long Beach and Glendale. While still in his 20s, he restored run-down property to sell at a profit and perfected the technique of erecting models that prospective customers could examine while construction was underway on new units just blocks away.

His first planned community was opened in Seal Beach in 1961 and the 6,500 units were quickly gobbled up. Three years later, he quickly sold out his first 1,018 units in Laguna Hills.

At the time of his death, his obituary listed two daughters and two stepsons.

Why Jade Pedersen was not included in Cortese’s will is anyone’s guess.

“Why he didn’t specifically name her or why he excluded her, I don’t know,” Wallace said. “He took that answer with him.”