The battle over Anne Heche’s estate is far from over.
Heche’s oldest son, Homer Laffoon, filed new court documents this week opposing the validity of a 2011 email his mother allegedly sent ex-boyfriend James Tupper appointing him executor of her estate.
The 20-year-old insists that the email “fails to satisfy the legal requirements for a valid formal witnessed will” because it “was not signed by [Heche] and does not have two witnesses who signed the document during [her] lifetime.”
“Mr. Tupper repeatedly refers to the email … as a ‘will.’ However — as a matter of law — the email does not qualify as either a holographic will or formal witnessed will,” he wrote in his filing, which was obtained by Page Six.
Therefore, Laffoon claims he is “the person with the highest priority of appointment” and is “legally entitled to appointment as administrator.”
Anne Heche’s oldest son, Homer Laffoon, is opposing the validity of a “will” his mother allegedly sent her then-boyfriend, James Tupper, via email in 2011.Getty Images for Christian SiriaAdditionally, he alleges that it “was not uncommon” for his mother “to send emails such as the one attached … when she was faced with uncertainty. In fact, [Heche] sent a similar email to her bookkeeper on April 7, 2020, after [she] contracted COVID-19.”
“This document, which fails to qualify as a will on the same basis as the email … makes no reference whatsoever to Mr. Tupper, which is not surprising given their acrimonious breakup in 2018,” Laffoon argues.
Following Heche’s death on Aug. 12, Laffoon filed a petition to be named executor of the estate and requested that he and his half-brother, Atlas, be listed as their mother’s sole heirs.
However, Tupper — who fathered 13-year-old son Atlas with Heche — filed documents where he claimed the late star sent him an email that read, “FYI in case I die tomorrow and anyone asks. My wishes are that all of my assets go to the control of Mr. James Tupper to be used to raise my children and then given to the children.”
In his filing, Tupper, 57, further argued that Laffoon “is not suitable” to run Heche’s estate, pointing out his young age, lack of employment and estranged relationship with his mom when she died.
The actor further alleged that Laffoon changed the locks on Heche’s apartment, which she shared with Atlas, and has prevented the teen from gaining access to his belongings inside.
Tupper also claimed that the half-brothers have not had any contact since Heche’s death on Aug. 12.
In his new filing, Laffoon calls Tupper’s claims “unfounded personal attacks” and “frivolous legal claims.”
Heche — who shared Laffoon with ex-husband, Coleman Laffoon — died at age 53 after a horrific Aug. 5 car crash that left her in a coma with severe burns and critical injuries. She was later removed from life support, and her organs were donated.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner-coroner listed sternal fracture due to blunt trauma as a contributing factor to her death, which was ruled accidental.
