June 4, 1998 | Read Time: 2 minutes
A legal battle over an Omaha woman’s will could cost non-profit groups in New York and Nebraska about $450-million in bequests.
Mildred Topp Othmer, who died in April, pledged almost all of her estate to charity in a 1988 will. But a niece who served as Ms. Othmer’s caretaker, Mary D. Seina, has petitioned the County Court of Douglas County, Neb., to throw out the will. Ms. Seina says that in 1995, her aunt revoked the will and wanted more money to go to her family. The charities who were left bequests contend that Ms. Othmer was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease in 1995 and was not mentally capable of deciding where her money should go.
If the will is revoked, Ms. Seina would inherit the entire amount, since she is Ms. Othmer’s closest living relative. In the will, Ms. Seina, who owns an Omaha clothing store with her husband, was left $2-million.
The University of Nebraska at Lincoln and Polytechnic University in New York City stand to lose the most: about $100-million each. Long Island College Hospital, also in New York, would receive about $80-million under the will, and Planned Parenthood of New York City could lose a bequest worth about $50-million. The Omaha School District expected to receive about $10-million from Ms. Othmer for a scholarship program.
For each of the non-profit groups, the bequest would represent the largest gift ever received. The pledge to Planned Parenthood of New York City, on whose Board of Directors Ms. Othmer served in 1978, for example, would be more than twice as much as the group’s annual budget.
Most of the non-profit groups involved declined to comment on the pending legal battle. Officials of the organizations said that they had not yet discussed the matter with the executor of the estate.
Ms. Seina declined to comment, but she told the Omaha World-Herald that her aunt wanted more money to go to her family. “We’re good folk, and I took care of my aunt,” Ms. Seina told the newspaper. “I don’t know why people are giving me a hassle.”
Ms. Othmer made her fortune by investing with the Omaha financier Warren Buffett, chairman of the investment company Berkshire Hathaway and the second richest man in the United States. The exact amount of her inheritance — and potential bequests — will depend on the price of Berkshire Hathaway stock at the time the estate is settled.
