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'56 Will Gone in Thin Heir By Dareh Gregorian
A pair of elderly Bronx sisters have finally gotten some money from their father's 50-year-old estate - but they owe millions in legal fees from their decades-long court battle with the brother who stole their inheritance out from under them. Real-estate mogul Max Sakow
died in 1956, leaving behind a one-page will asking his widow to
sell all of his properties and give two-thirds of the
DAUGHTERS' ORDERS:
Evelyn (left) and
profits to their
three kids: Walter, 25, The sisters found out the truth in 1983 and have been trying to reclaim their inheritance ever since. They finally got a small piece of it in December, when the court-appointed receiver sold two of the nine properties he'd been ordered to unload years earlier. They received about $1 million from the sale, while Walter - who various courts have found engaged in fraud, forgery, self-dealing and deception in hoarding their father's estate for himself - got $600,000 from it. "The courts have just let Walter get away with murder through the years," said Diana, now 65. She and Evelyn say they've already spent hundreds of thousands in legal fees on the case, and owe at least $2 million more. Court papers show that Walter had a number of highly unusual business practices, including putting all of his and his business-partner wife's earnings into their daughter's checking and savings accounts, while using company funds for the family's living expenses. In the court fight with his sisters, Walter testified that he hadn't paid taxes or filed any tax returns in 10 years, and made a number of claims that various judges found suspect, including that he'd given out a 21-year lease on one of his father's Bronx properties to a 24-hour gas station for a minuscule $1,000 a month. He'd leased out various others of his father's properties, some of which were vacant lots, for even smaller amounts, in "leases" that were handwritten and not notarized. One of the Sakow sisters' frustrations is the court-appointed receiver's failure to get those leases voided. Now, the sisters are waiting to see when, or if, the other seven properties - which have an estimated value of $10 million - will be sold. They said Walter has blocked deals to sell some of the properties, so they're going to have to go before another judge, and hire new lawyers, to deal with that. "The longer this is dragged out, the greater the legal fees," Diana said. They asked Surrogate Lee Holzman to hold their brother accountable for the fees, but he said no. Walter's lawyer did not return a call for comment. In the past, he's said it's his client who's been done a "gross injustice," and that he's a good sibling who worked hard for what he has. Sister Broke in Feud over Big-bucks Will By Dareh Gregorian She's been fighting for her rightful share of her father's megabuck estate for almost 20 years, but now time is running out for Evelyn Breslaw. "I'm behind on my rent and my bills and I've applied for food stamps. I don't know what I'm going to do," Breslaw, 67, told The Post after she and her sister, Diane Sakow, 64, ran into yet another delay in collecting their share of the now-multimillion-dollar estate. The biggest roadblock came from their brother, Walter Sakow, who hid their father's will from them almost five decades ago and then helped himself to their real-estate developer dad's numerous Bronx properties. The next biggest delay has come courtesy of the state court system, which has allowed their family feud to drag through the system for 20 years. An appeals court ruled they should have started collecting from the estate five years ago, but the sisters, who've now spent their life savings on legal expenses, have yet to see a dime. Breslaw and her sister had hoped they were finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel this past fall, when Bronx Surrogate Court Judge Lee Holzman, who once took four years to issue a decision in their case, ordered their brother to sell two of their father's old properties and divvy up the proceeds with them. That sale has now been put on hold, because the court-appointed receiver said he just "recently" discovered that Walter had leased out one of the properties, a vacant lot at Bartow and Ely avenues in The Bronx, back in 1992. The sisters say the lease is a sham —— it allows one of Walter's business associates to use the lot for 25 years, free of charge. Walter's lawyer, Kenneth Miller, declined comment on the leases, but said it's his client, not the sisters, who's getting a raw deal. "He's invested millions into these properties over the years," Miller said. |
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It's the ultimate case of "justice delayed is justice denied."
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A Feast
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