Nixon's daughters ordered to join lawsuit

MIAMI -- A Florida judge ordered Richard Nixon's feuding daughters to join a lawsuit Thursday over $20-million willed to their late father's presidential library by his friend, Key Biscayne banker Charles "Bebe" Rebozo.

Probate Judge Maria Korvick said Tricia Cox and Julie Eisenhower must be parties to the suit filed by the Nixon Library and Birthplace against Rebozo's trust. Otherwise, they could ignore her final decision, the judge said.

The sisters are fighting over whether the Yorba Linda, Calif., library should be operated by the family, which is Cox's view, or by a 24-member board, the preference of Eisenhower and the library foundation.

The foundation is suing in Florida and California to unfreeze money from Rebozo's estate and get it to the library. Rebozo's trust wants both lawsuits to be thrown out.

The sisters' disagreement has stalled distribution of the money for more than two years. Neither attended Thursday's hearing.

"Never had so much problems giving away $20-million," said Oscar Cabanas, attorney for Rebozo's trust. "We are ready and willing and anxious to distribute."

The trust, formed after Rebozo died in 1998, gave the foundation $781,000 in 1999 but nothing since. A check for $1.3-million intended for taxes has been frozen.

The freeze is not affecting library operations "in any immediate or urgent fashion," foundation attorney Robert Landon said.

Korvick suggested she could send the frozen money to California and let a judge there decide how it should be spent if the daughters can't.

The judge said she could understand the trustees' "reluctance to proceed without a court order or the agreement" of those controlling the library -- Nixon's daughters and another longtime Nixon friend, Robert Abplanalp. But she added the trustees "also have a duty to bring it to a head."

The trust believes the three must reach unanimous agreement on library spending plans, but the library foundation wants majority rule.

"Mrs. Eisenhower has been quite supportive of the library's position. Mrs. Cox refuses to speak with us," Landon said. "To understand Mrs. Cox's position, I think it's necessary to understand a long history of discord."

Foundation attorney Jack Falk complained that the Rebozo trustees have eaten up money intended for the library, including $1-million in trustees' commissions and hundreds of thousands in legal fees.

Rebozo left 65 percent of his estate to the library on the condition that the sisters and Abplanalp approve the spending. The trust created by the Miami real estate developer will end its dealings with the library when the money is distributed.

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