A fraud suit filed this week by the ex-wife of Marlon Brando's son Christian is the third attempt in the past 18 months to prove that the executors of Brando's $22 million estate illegally obtained their power through a forged codicil to his will.

Deborah Brando is following in the footsteps of the actor's former caregiver Angela Borlaza, who alleged the codicil is a forgery in suits filed in June 2006 and August 2007, but has so far failed to get a judge to address the merits of her allegations.

The original will appointed longtime Brando retainers JoAn Corrales and Alice Marchak to administer his estate. The codicil –- dated less than two weeks before his death in July 2004 -- replaced them with former Hollywood studio chief Mike Medavoy, accountant Larry Dressler, and Avra Douglas (a friend of Brando's daughter Rebecca).

Christian Brando, who died Jan. 26, never challenged the authenticity of the codicil himself. But Deborah Brando claims she has standing to sue the executors because he assigned his inheritance rights to her in February 2007 as part of the settlement of a domestic violence case she filed against him.

“Defendants ... conspired to deceive and conceal from the Plaintiff the fact that the Codicil to the will was not signed by Marlon Brando, and that the signature thereon is a forgery,” the complaint says.

Deborah Brando is also challenging the will separately in a probate court petition and she has the same attorney, Greg J. Venturi of Santa Monica, as Borlaza. Her fraud suit is the first to include notary Neil Dekter as a defendant, alleging he did not properly witness and notarize Marlon Brando's signature.

Borlaza alleged in her original suit that Brando was “incapacitated” and “incapable of signing anything” on the day he changed his will. After that case was settled for $243,750 in December 2006, she sued again, claiming that the executors duped her into signing a confidentiality agreement.

The agreement “is void because it was signed by individuals ... [whose] purported authority stems from a forged codicil to the true will and amendment to the trust of Marlon Brando,” the suit said.

Earlier this month, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted the executors' motion to compel private arbitration of the case. “So far, nobody seems to want to address ... whether the will is a forgery,” Venturi tells On Point.

Deborah Brando is seeking, among other things, a court order declaring that she is not bound by a confidentiality agreement between Christian Brando and his father's estate. “[I]f the codicil is forged, Defendants did not have the authority ... [to] bind Plaintiff to any agreement or confidentiality clause therein,” she alleges.

Since Marlon Brando's death, the executors have sold off many of his assets. Most controversially, they made a $2 million deal with a Tahiti-based businessman who plans to develop Brando's beloved South Pacific island, Tetiaroa, as an “eco-resort.”

By Matthew Heller
1/30/08