Miami Beach's newest socialite, Conchita, lives in an $8.3 million Sunset Island mansion, owns a Cartier diamond necklace and has a $3 million trust fund to support a lifestyle of designer duds, massages and pedicures.
What makes Conchita different from other Miami Beach socialites: She's a Chihuahua. Conchita came into her wealth upon the March death of her owner socialite Gail Posner, the daughter of late corporate raider Victor Posner.
Whether Conchita keeps her millions will be decided in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, where Gail Posner's only living child, son Bret Carr, launched a legal battle this month over his mother's estate. Carr claims his mother was manipulated into changing her will in 2008, leaving millions to her dogs and hired help.
``She never would have done that unless she was under extreme influence,'' said Carr, 46, who has a video shot on his iPhone of a visit with his mother in late 2008 where she claimed her staff was trying to ``kidnap and kill me.'' In the video, Posner also asks her son to ``get me out of here.''
The battle of Bret vs. Conchita and the hired help is just the latest window into the eccentricities of the Posner family. It was only eight years ago that Gail Posner and other family members were enmeshed in a similar court fight upon the death of Victor Posner.
Gail Posner's will and trust gives her three dogs -- Conchita, April Maria and Lucia -- the right to live in the two-story Sunset Island mansion until they die.
She also left $27 million to her maids, bodyguards and personal trainer, plus the right for some of them to live rent free in the seven-bedroom, eight-bathroom mansion in exchange for taking care of the dogs. Bret Posner got only $1 million. The remainder of the estate goes to charities.
Posner is certainly not the first to leave at least a portion of her fortune to her pets. The case has similarities to Leona Helmsley, who left a $12 million trust fund to her Maltese that was later reduced by a judge to $2 million.
Carr sees his mother's fascination with her dogs as a sign of a deeply troubled woman, who was the victim of childhood incest and spent her life battling addictions to drugs and alcohol. Carr held his mother in her arms as she died at 67 of cancer, which had spread throughout her body.
``By protecting and pampering those dogs, she was really trying to pamper the little girl inside of her that was abused by Victor and never found safety in her own home,'' said Carr, a Hollywood filmmaker, who divides his time between South Florida and California. ``That frailty was leveraged by her staff. They exacerbated her paranoia and tendency to be in a delusional world.''
Court documents describe Gail Posner as a ``deeply disturbed recluse with serious emotional and psychological problems stemming from her history of having been sexually abused by Victor, (her daughter) Tina's suicide, and her lifelong mental health imbalances and alcohol and substance abuse.''
Posner in 2007 had hired a publicist for Conchita, who she billed as the world's most spoiled dog. Gail Posner told The Miami Herald in 2007 about Conchita's $12,000 summer wardrobe and a $15,000 Cartier necklace that the Chihuahua refused to wear after choking on it.
``Conchita is the only girl I know who doesn't consider diamonds her best friend,'' Posner told The Miami Herald.
Gail Posner lived her whole life under the manipulation and shadow of her father, whose hard-charging business personality extended into his personal life. But in death, Gail may have turned out more like her father than anyone could have imagined.
``She took on her father's identity and got similar results,'' Carr said.
Just like her father, there are allegations that as Gail's health deteriorated she was ``imprisoned'' in her house and cut off from her family. She also changed her will shortly before her death, giving away much of her fortune to others and slighting her family. Carr alleges she wasn't mentally capable of drafting that will and was ``blackmailed'' by her employees.
It will be up to the courts to decide if Gail Posner knew what she was doing when she signed that will and no one who stood to gain from the will exerted ``undue influence'' on her, said Carl Westman, a trusts and estate planning attorney with GrayRobinson in Naples.
Other attorneys say key evidence could be video of Gail Posner signing the new will or independent third-party witnesses.
``Especially when you're talking about people with a lot of money and notoriety, who are going to disinherit family members, any attorney is going to take a lot of precautions to make sure the estate is not overturned,'' said David Kron, a Fort Lauderdale trusts and estate planning attorney with Ruden McClosky.
Given the Posner family history, it's even more important. When Victor Posner died in 2002, the fight focused on a will signed the year before that had made his business associate and former girlfriend Brenda Nestor the chief beneficiary and personal representative of Posner's estate. That will cut out all but one of Posner's children and left his grandchildren nothing.
The will faced challenges from Gail Posner, the grandchildren and Marvin Rosen, a New York lawyer who once handled Victor's affairs. They argued Nestor had looted Posner's company and kept away everyone that wasn't loyal to her. But ultimately, Nestor and Gail Posner settled out of court to avoid a protracted legal battle.
In a sign of how much drama and controversy surrounds this family, Miami attorney Aaron Podhurst, who represented Gail Posner in the first will contest, declined to serve as personal representative of her estate as designated in the will.
Instead, that role is being filled by a bank: BNY Mellon.
Now, Carr is suing BNY Mellon and related firm Mellon Private Trust. He wants to know what happened to the $100 million he claims was in his mother's trust after Victor Posner's death.
Victor Posner in 1965 set up irrevocable trusts for Gail and her twin brother Steven, which would generate income for them during their entire lives. One of the early corporate raiders, Posner amassed a fortune by plundering companies and ultimately got himself in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
His daughter was only allowed to touch the principal in her trust account for emergencies or if she needed money to ``maintain her in the station of life she was accustomed.'' The principal was supposed to remain in the trust for her children.
``The income from a $100 million trust is significant and certainly one would anticipate that any reasonable person would say that was enough money to maintain her current lifestyle,'' said attorney Bruce Katzen, whose Miami firm Kluger Kaplan Silverman Katzen & Levine is representing Carr. ``She could not act in a self-serving manner to take the money out of the trust to give it to herself.''
But that may have been what happened when the trust was closed in August 2008 with any remaining money given to Gail Posner and placed in a newly created trust. Carr's suit accuses BNY of breaching its ``fiduciary duties.''
``We believe we acted appropriately as trustee in relation to the 1965 trust,'' said Susan Rivers, a spokeswoman for BNY Mellon Wealth Management. ``We intend to vigorously defend ourselves.''
Miami attorney Steve Gillman, whose firm Shutts & Bowen represents BNY Mellon, echoed Rivers' sentiments. Both declined to comment on any of the specific allegations.
Estate planning attorneys say BNY will have to prove to the court that the amounts it allowed Gail Posner to withdraw were necessary and why it was reasonable for the 1965 trust to be disbanded.
``They had a responsibility to protect not only the interests of Gail, but also Bret,'' Kron said. ``They clearly did not do that because there is nothing left for Bret.''
Carr, who had his own brush with the law in his 20s for counterfeiting traveler's checks, said he was told all his life by his mother that he would get the house next door to her when she died, as well as her estate. The mother and son had an up and down relationship that was at its best when Gail was in the ``sober phase'' of her life, Carr said.
After Victor Posner's death, Gail started to show signs of overcoming the addiction and mental problems that had plagued her entire life. During that time she grew closer to Carr. But the diagnosis of breast cancer in 2005 sent her into a tailspin, Carr said. Things only got worse as the cancer spread to her brain.
The suit charges that her employees took advantage of that, gradually preventing Carr from talking to his mother and keeping him from visiting her Miami Beach home. The lawsuit also decribes a campaign of injecting Posner with powerful pain killers and brainwashing her to believe that her family was out to kill her.
It was during that period, in 2008, when Posner executed a new will and trust agreement.
``I wanted to help my mother; I had no recourse,'' Carr said. ``I loved my mom very much, but she had very few sober phases in her life. I always saw her as a victim of Victor.''
BY ELAINE WALKER
Miami Herald staff writer Robert Samuels contributed to this report.
