Ex-Guard Seeks to Share Inheritance of Doris Duke’s Adopted Daughter

Just when it looked like legal wrangling over Doris Duke’s tobacco fortune had ended, another figure stepped forward Wednesday to claim part of the heiress’s $1.2 billion estate: one of her former security guards.

In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, James Burns, 32, does not ask for money directly from the Duke estate, but seeks half of the $65.8 million paid to the heiress’s adopted daughter, Chandi Heffner Duke.

The suit says Burns and Duke’s adopted daughter lived together from 1990 to 1993--covering the period when an ailing Duke tried to disown the younger woman, whom she decided was out for her money.

Burns served as Chandi Heffner Duke’s “companion, confidant, cook, bodyguard,” according to the suit, and she, in turn, agreed that they would divide “her expected inheritance.”

The adopted daughter was written out of the last will of Duke, who died in October 1993, but filed suit and reached the $65.8-million settlement with the estate’s executors.

Burns alleges that in June, Heffner “repudiated and breached her agreement” to share her windfall and that he suffered “humiliation, mental anguish and emotional injuries.”