Anne Heche’s fatal car crash in August left fans, friends and family members in shock. It also spurred a lengthy legal battle over the actor’s estate between her ex-boyfriend James Tupper and her son Homer Laffoon — who now claims the document Tupper considers Heche’s will was forged.
Laffoon, 20, filed documents to assume control over his mother’s estate in early September because Heche didn’t leave a will, People reported. He added nine pages to that petition on Tuesday and accused Tupper of rampant interference, People said, citing court documents the outlet had obtained.
According to People, Laffoon’s filing on Tuesday claims that Tupper had tried to stop him from contacting his 13-year-old half-brother, Atlas Heche Tupper, in the wake of their mother’s death and that a 2011 document supposedly giving control of Heche’s estate to Tupper wasn’t authentic and that the signature on it wasn’t hers.
“Mr. Tupper repeatedly refers to the email attached to the Objection as a ‘will,’” the filing reportedly reads. “However — as a matter of law — the email does not qualify as either a holographic will or a formal witnessed will.”
“The email fails to satisfy the legal requirements for a valid holographic will because the material provisions of the purported will are not in the handwriting of the Decedent,” the filing adds, according to People.
Laffoon’s filing also reportedly claims that the two witnesses required by law to observe the signing of a will were never present in 2011. Without a will, the filing states, there can be no nomination or appointment of an executor to assume control over Heche’s estate.
Laffoon and Tupper have been fighting over Heche’s assets for weeks now. Tupper not only claimed that Laffoon was “estranged” from his mother at the time of her death, but filed several objections against his “suitability” as the estate holder — which Laffoon called “inaccurate and unfounded.”
Heche crashed into a residential home in Los Angeles on Aug. 5 and went into a coma after sustaining severe injuries. She was declared legally dead on Aug. 12 but remained on life support while her organs were removed for donation. She was taken off life support on Aug. 14.
