LOS ANGELES : Closing Argument Given in Suit by ‘Stooges’ Heirs

The heirs of Three Stooges Larry Fine and “Curly Joe” DeRita were cheated out of about $1 million by the heirs of comedian Moe Howard, a lawyer told jurors Monday.

“We’re at the end of a long case,” plaintiffs’ lawyer Earl Benjamin told the Los Angeles Superior Court panel in his closing argument, which came after nearly four months of testimony in Los Angeles Superior Court.

“But when you boil it all down,” said Benjamin, who represents DeRita’s widow and Fine’s granddaughter, Kris Cutler, “the defendants just wanted to make themselves richer.”

Jean DeRita and Kutler sued Moe Howard’s grandson, Jeffrey Scott, and the widow of former Three Stooges manager Norman Maurer shortly after Curly Joe DeRita died in 1993, claiming Maurer had been shortchanging them when merchandising profits came in.

They allege that the slapstick trio’s profits between 1977 and 1993 were split four ways--with a portion of the money going to Maurer--instead of equally between each stooge.

But the defendants contend the lawsuit amounts to sour grapes. They say Norman Maurer had always received a share of the Stooges’ profits from the time that he married Howard’s daughter and began managing the trio in the 1960s.

The plaintiffs are seeking about $1 million in back royalties and about $5 million for pain and suffering.

The Three Stooges formed in 1920. Between the 1930s and 50s, they made six motion pictures in addition to TV work, and once appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Norman Maurer stopped managing the Three Stooges in 1970.