Lawsuit questions mogul’s mental fitness

He’s the corporate titan who controls media companies Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. But according to a new lawsuit, Sumner Redstone at age 92 is mentally impaired and unable to make his own decisions.

The suit, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court by Redstone’s former girlfriend, Manuela Herzer, says Redstone can no longer speak intelligibly or feed himself, and is prone to uncontrollable crying spells. “He requires around-the-clock nursing care and his home has become a defacto intensive care unit,” according to one of the legal documents.

Redstone’s lawyers maintain that the former girlfriend filed the lawsuit in an attempt to avoid being cut out of his will.

“Ms. Herzer’s claim that she filed this lawsuit out of concern for Mr. Redstone is preposterous,” attorney Gabrielle A. Vidal said in a statement. “It is a meritless action, riddled with lies, and a despicable invasion of his privacy. It proves only that

Ms. Herzer will stop at nothing to pursue her personal financial agenda.”

A Viacom spokesman declined to comment.

Herzer, 51, is asking a judge to rule that Redstone was not mentally competent when he removed her from oversight of his healthcare. If such a determination were to occur, then Herzer could return to her prominence at Redstone’s Beverly Park home, making decisions about his care and household affairs.

She is asking that Redstone submit to a mental evaluation, brain scan and videotaped deposition. A judge scheduled a conference between the two sides for Monday.

Although the suit itself is limited to a narrow point of Redstone’s healthcare directive, the case could have wider implications for Viacom and CBS, said Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware.

“Any time someone’s capacity is questioned, in open court, at that point the [company] board is certainly on notice that they should consider the issue,” Elson said. “If you have a judicial finding, the board at that point would have to react.”

Redstone is worth an estimated $5.5 billion, according to Forbes, with much of his holdings tied up in Viacom and CBS stock.

The lawsuit challenges decisions made regarding Redstone’s care but not his holdings in the two media companies.

Until last summer, Redstone had entrusted his care and household affairs to Herzer and another girlfriend, whom he lavished with homes and gifts worth millions of dollars.

The women were banished from Redstone’s life after they posed for a splashy Vanity Fair photo spread last spring that celebrated their status as his girlfriends.

Herzer was in charge of Redstone’s advance healthcare directive and made decisions on his behalf. But on Oct. 12, she was expelled from Redstone’s home and his life by an attorney for Redstone.

Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman took over as the agent in charge of Redstone’s advance healthcare directive the same day. If a doctor determines that Redstone has become incapacitated, Dauman would make decisions on behalf of Redstone.

The case may have ramifications for Viacom, which owns Paramount Pictures film studio in Los Angeles and the cable TV channels MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. Redstone’s CBS includes the nation’s most-watched TV network, radio and TV stations, including KCBS-TV Channel 2 in Los Angeles, and premium channel Showtime.

Redstone and his family control 79% of the voting shares of the two companies.

This is not the first time the health of a powerful corporate chieftain has been called into question.

Questions were raised about the health of Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, for two years before his death in 2011.

Redstone has not been involved in the day-to-day functions of Viacom or CBS for some time.

Nonetheless, he received more than $169 million in salary, bonuses and benefits from 2012 to 2014 for serving as executive chairman, according to company filings. The mogul cashed in about $350 million in stock options during a yearlong period from early 2014 to earlier this year, according to regulatory filings.

Attorneys for Redstone accused Herzer of going to lengths to stay in Redstone’s will — even threatening to invite the tabloid TV show TMZ into Redstone’s home.

“This application is all about Ms. Herzer’s personal financial agenda,” Vidal wrote in the Redstone legal response. “She suspected that in the days or weeks following her removal from his home, Mr. Redstone would take action to amend his estate plan. Whatever benefit might have previously accrued to her would be eliminated.” Redstone’s interest in the two media companies is governed by an irrevocable trust. When he dies or is no longer able to oversee his affairs, a group of trustees will assume the decision-making over his interests.

Herzer’s suit details the deteriorating health of Redstone.

“He stared vacantly at times, not appearing to be in the moment, and was mostly listless,” according to a declaration by Herzer’s brother, Carlos Herzer. “He was given to random crying spells that had no discernible cause.”

Herzer’s filings included a declaration from a woman who said she had dated Redstone years ago and was recently asked by Herzer to come to Redstone’s mansion. The woman, Heidi MacKinney, said such visits ended last month.

“My final two visits were especially troubling,” MacKinney said in the declaration. “In my second-to-the-last visit, around Oct. 3, 2015, I tried to talk to Sumner, but he was completely non-responsive.... I decided not to return or offer to be sexually intimate with him again.”

She returned once more, on Oct. 10, but said Redstone was “even more disoriented.”

Herzer said that she has known Redstone for 16 years and that he once asked her to marry him, but she declined. Her teenage daughter, Kathrine Herzer, has a prominent role in the CBS drama “Madam Secretary.”

Redstone’s health began to decline in the summer of 2014 and, Manuela Herzer said, he was hospitalized several times.

His health worsened this year after Redstone ordered his girlfriend of five years, Sydney Holland, 44, out of his home when he learned that Holland was involved with another man. Herzer then became Redstone’s primary caretaker until her eviction Oct. 12.