Nation IN BRIEF : NEW YORK : Doris Duke Estate Compromise Gets OK
A Surrogate’s Court judge formally approved a compromise plan to send the bulk of tobacco heiress Doris Duke’s $1.2-billion estate to charity. The settlement was partially paved by an agreement that Duke’s former butler, Bernard Lafferty, will play no role in the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in return for a $4.5-million executor’s fee and a $500,000 annual bequest. The foundation’s board will be enlarged and the fees that trustees receive will be cut. In a court session that lasted less than an hour, Judge Eve M. Preminger ended a bitter 2 1/2-year fight over the authenticity of Duke’s last will, admitting it to probate.
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