Myrtle Beach- The administrators of the estate of late Hooters restaurant Chairman Robert H. Brooks are challenging an S.C. law that gives spouses an automatic share of inheritance as part of a long-running fight over who will claim a multimillion-dollar fortune built on hot wings and shapely waitresses.
The estate battle is being waged between Brooks' widow, Tami, and Coby Brooks, Robert Brooks' adult son from a previous marriage, who now heads the 435-restaurant Hooters of America Inc. chain.
The two sides have traded legal barbs in Horry County Probate Court since Robert Brooks' death of natural causes on July 15 at age 69.
Among all the family squabbling is a legal challenge that, if upheld, could have a wide-ranging effect on this state's probate laws.
Tami Brooks, 48, has accused Coby Brooks and other estate administrators in court documents of being slow to pay her $25,000-a-month sustenance allowance, changing their story about her status as beneficiary of a life insurance policy and withholding information about the value of her late husband's estate.
In addition to the monthly allowance, the estate's administrators, also known as personal representatives, are paying a $5,363.82 monthly mortgage on the Ocean Boulevard home where Tami Brooks lives.
The other administrators are: James Creel and Carter Wrenn, local businessmen and longtime friends of Robert Brooks; Edward Greene, chief executive of Naturally Fresh Inc.; and Glenn Brooks, brother of Robert Brooks.
The allowance and mortgage payments will be deducted from money, if any, that Tami Brooks gets when the estate is settled.
Coby Brooks, 38, and the estate's four other administrators say Tami Brooks doesn't deserve the Hooters fortune because she and Robert Brooks were not "living together as husband and wife" at the time of his death - one of the requirements Robert Brooks specified in his will before Tami Brooks could receive any money.
Robert and Tami Brooks were married in 1998 but lived in separate homes at the time of Robert Brooks' death, according to court documents filed by the estate's administrators.
Last month, the estate's administrators, who also include some of the late Hooters chairman's closest friends and business associates, filed a request with the probate court to sell Robert Brooks' $2.3 million home in the Dunes Club neighborhood - a home Tami Brooks says belongs to her.
That Dunes Club home is located adjacent to the $1 million home where Tami Brooks now lives.
The administrators say the Dunes Club home's $27,902 monthly mortgage payment is costing the estate too much money. They want to sell the house and put the proceeds in escrow until the probate court determines its rightful owner.
Tami Brooks, who grew up in North Myrtle Beach and has two adult children from a previous marriage, is fighting the sale. A hearing is scheduled for Aug. 16.
Caught in the middle is Boni Belle Brooks, the daughter Robert and Tami Brooks had in 1999.
Robert Brooks left Boni Belle about a third of his estate, but she cannot touch the assets until she reaches the age of 30. A lawyer has been appointed to represent Boni Belle's interests in the estate battle.
Robert Brooks had another son from a previous marriage, Mark, who died in a 1993 plane crash at age 26.
The administrators' legal challenge centers on South Carolina's elective share law, which lets people take one-third of their deceased spouse's estate instead of accepting what, if anything, that spouse left to them in a will.
Tami Brooks has filed in probate court for an elective share of her late husband's estate instead of accepting the $20 million Robert Brooks left to her in his will. That $20 million was to be paid over a 20-year period without interest.
The estate's value has not been determined, but court documents show the elective share likely will be worth much more than $20 million.
Coby Brooks and other administrators are fighting Tami Brooks' right to an elective share, saying the state law violates the U.S. Constitution.
Elective share is a modern version of the common law dower concept that was designed to prevent surviving spouses from falling into poverty.
Most states, except community-property states, have elective share laws.
Depending on how that and other legal challenges go, Tami Brooks could wind up with a large share of her late husband's fortune or nothing at all.
Lawyers representing both sides of the estate fight declined to comment to The Sun News.
It is difficult to put a value on Robert Brooks' estate because the two biggest companies he headed - Hooters and Naturally Fresh Inc. of Atlanta - are private and don't have to file public financial statements.
Probate court hearings probably won't shed much light on the value, either, because Judge Deirdre Edmonds signed a confidentiality order last month that will keep financial and personal business documents under seal.
The estate's administrators requested the confidentiality order, saying proprietary information about Hooters and Naturally Fresh might otherwise leak out to competitors.
The best guess, according to public records and business experts, is that Brooks' estate is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Brooks, who grew up on a tobacco farm outside Loris, founded Naturally Fresh in 1966 to sell coffee creamer to the airline industry. The Atlanta-based company now makes salad dressings, dips, vinegars, oils and meat sauces. Its 30 distribution centers ship products to grocery stores and restaurants nationwide.
Hoover's, a business information database, estimates Naturally Fresh has $100 million in annual sales.
Brooks was a minority owner of Naturally Fresh at the time of his death, although court documents do not say what percentage of the company he owned.
Brooks acquired the Hooters restaurant chain in 1986 when there were only a handful of the restaurants featuring chicken wings and beer served by waitresses in orange shorts and tight, low-cut tank tops.
Over the next 20 years, the Hooters chain expanded to 435 restaurants in 46 states and 20 foreign countries.
Hooters of America Inc., the company Brooks headed as chairman, owns 120 of those restaurants and franchises the others.
A report by Restaurants and Institutions magazine ranks Hooters as the nation's 15th most successful full-service restaurant in terms of sales, which hit $900 million in 2006 and are expected to top $1 billion this year.
A recent appraisal of the chain by A.J. Block Jr., a lawyer and one of Brooks' business consultants, put the after-debt value of Hooters of America Inc. at between $130 million and $160 million, according to court documents.
Brooks also owned interests in National Golf Association Inc., sponsor of the Hooters Professional Golf Tour; Hallbrook Productions Inc., a video production company in Atlanta; and USA Racing Inc., sponsor of the Hooters Pro Cup automobile racing series.
In addition to the Dunes Club home, Brooks owned an oceanfront home in North Myrtle Beach, a home in Atlanta, a home and about 58 acres on two tracts in Loris and was a partner in several Grand Strand and Atlanta area residential developments.
His lone business failure was Hooters Air, a Myrtle Beach-based airline Brooks founded in 2003. The flights, which featured Hooters Girls along with flight attendants, brought tourists to the Grand Strand and served as flying billboards for Brooks' restaurants.
Mounting fuel costs and an airline industry slump forced Hooters Air to halt its commercial flights in 2006.
The airline's creditors have filed at least $8.9 million in claims against the estate, part of at least $53.7 million worth of claims creditors have filed since Brooks' death.
Robert Brooks was known for his philanthropy while alive, and among his gifts were $6 million to alma mater Clemson University to establish science and performing arts schools and another $2 million to Coastal Carolina University for a football stadium.
That generosity also was evident in the Aug. 19, 2003, will Brooks signed to designate how his estate was to be divided.
Brooks left gifts of cash, shares of his companies and a Myrtle Beach Hooters restaurant to family, friends and business associates. He also left 10 percent of his ownership in Hooters of America to Clemson University to establish a sports college. The value of that gift won't be determined until after the estate battle is settled.
But the bulk of the estate - about two-thirds - was to be divided between Coby and Boni Belle Brooks.
In addition to the $20 million Brooks left his wife, Tami Brooks was to receive all of his personal belongings, automobiles and their home.
The catch in the will, however, was that Robert and Tami Brooks had to be "living together as husband and wife" for her to get anything.
Coby Brooks and other administrators say the couple were not living together when Robert Brooks died. Instead, Robert Brooks lived in the Dunes Club home and Tami Brooks lived in the home next door.
The administrators have asked Judge Edmonds to rule that parts of the estate willed to Tami Brooks should be voided because the couple was living apart.
On a second front, they are mounting a challenge to the state's elective share law, which Tami Brooks wants to use to inherit one-third of her late husband's estate.
The administrators claim the elective share law violates the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause requiring laws to be applied equally to all people. They say elective share gives spouses, such as Tami Brooks, rights that other people do not have.
Experts say the administrators also might argue that elective share violates the Constitution's due process clause because it amounts to a taking of property without compensation.
Such a challenge could prove difficult, however, because courts nationwide, including the S.C. Supreme Court, have repeatedly upheld elective share laws.
"I won't say it's a frivolous argument, but it's not likely to prevail," said William Newsome, a probate law expert with the Nexsen Pruet law firm in Columbia.
Newsome said elective share laws "have generally withstood challenges" in courts nationally.
"The public policy behind the law is supportive of the institution of marriage and making sure someone doesn't become a ward of the state after the death of their spouse," Newsome said.
The estate battle could pick up speed this summer now that a confidentiality order has been signed and financial information will be shared between Tami Brooks and the administrators.
To this point, Tami Brooks has declined to sign off on tax payments and other financial requests the administrators say they need to resolve because she has not been given "full disclosure of assets and liabilities" of the estate, according to court documents.
For example, there are about $31,010 in delinquent property taxes owed on Robert Brooks' land and homes.
Among the documents Tami Brooks has requested are three years' worth of tax returns for Hooters of America and Naturally Fresh and copies of every transaction and canceled check related to a trust Robert Brooks created.
It is not clear from court filings whether that information has been provided to Tami Brooks.
In life, friends say, Robert Brooks never strayed too far, both physically and spiritually, from the Loris farm where he grew up.
He did not have an ostentatious public image despite the success and high profile of his restaurants.
Friends say he was not affected by great wealth and that his modest, down-home demeanor was genuine.
During a February 2003 interview with The Sun News, Brooks said he had no idea how much money he was worth.
"If you can count it, you must not be worth too much," he said.
Probate court filings show it likely will take several more months to count that money and a longer time still to determine where it all should go.
