Harris' family loses in heirs' fight

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 6, 2001

BARTOW -- Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris and her immediate family lost a legal battle Friday over control of the multimillion-dollar estate left by the family patriarch, Ben Hill Griffin Jr.

The bitter squabble unfolded this week in Circuit Court, pitting Harris, her parents and siblings against a number of aunts, uncles and cousins -- all part of a prominent Florida family with vast holdings in citrus, cattle and real estate.

More than a dozen lawyers filled the courtroom, including two who represented heirs who might someday be born into the family -- a clan riven by years of lawsuits and failed attempts at mediation.

The depth of those feelings was on display during a three-day hearing before Circuit Judge Michael J. Hunter. A large group of relatives sat on one side of the courtroom, allied in their fight against the Harris branch of the clan, but also divided among themselves because of previous court battles.

The Harrises sat on the other side, including the secretary of state, who showed up Wednesday to testify.

Some family members do not speak to each other, a fact that prompted one of their lawyers to describe them as enemies who are hopelessly "Balkanized."

At stake was how to divide $500-million in family holdings.

In a tentative ruling late Friday, Hunter said he planned to find against the Harrises, who sought to stop a recent settlement from going through.

The current dispute goes back to 1998, when the four daughters of Ben Hill Griffin Jr. joined in a "protectorate" to deal with their brother, Ben Hill Griffin III, who ran the family business after their father died in 1990. One of the sisters, Harriett Harris, is Katherine Harris' mother.

The sisters and their children claimed in a lawsuit last year that Griffin III tried to gain too much control of the business, edging them out and promoting his side of the family to key positions.

After several attempts at mediation, Griffin III and the protectorate agreed March 29 to divide the family business. Griffin III and his side of the family would get 40 percent and the sisters 60 percent -- a portion that included a 62,000-acre ranch in Highlands County and controlling interest in Alico Inc., a publicly traded company with citrus and land holdings.

The plan was to spin off the sisters' 60 percent into a new company in a way that would avoid federal income taxes.

At that point, Katherine Harris and her family were solid members of the protectorate, arrayed with the others against Griffin III. And like the others, the Harrises asked the judge to approve the settlement.

But as the protectorate began to hash out details of how the spinoff company would operate, the Harrises became opposed, upset that one of the brothers-in-law, John Alexander, was appointed to run the company for a year at a salary of $125,000.

Alexander is the father of state Rep. JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, who also is involved in the dispute.

The Harrises had wanted a professional manager to run the new company. They also contended that the deal would bring the new company about $35-million less in assets than was contemplated in the settlement. Instead of getting 60 percent of the family holdings, the Harrises' lawyers said Friday, the deal would give the protectorate less than 50 percent.

The Harrises went further, alleging that Alexander conspired with Griffin III to craft the deal.

The allegations resulted in strange new family alliances, putting Griffin III in the same camp with three of the sisters who had opposed him in the past. Now they were all arrayed against the Harrises.

Noting that Alexander and Griffin III had been bitter rivals in past family battles, Judge Hunter called the theory of a conspiracy between the two men "laughable." He said he would likely order the Harrises to participate in finalizing the settlement.

The Harris lawyers, however, indicated they planned to appeal.

Also pending is a lawsuit filed by Harris and her family this week in federal court in Tallahassee, alleging fraud, conspiracy and security violations.

Even if the settlement is ultimately approved by the family, it must then be approved by the Internal Revenue Service. But Griffin III expressed confidence Friday that the deal would clear all those hurdles in the next few months.

And after that, he said, "I think the family will be brought back together."

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