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Hendrix estate battle starts
28/06/2004 13:57 - (SA)
Los Angeles - A court battle over the estate of Jimi Hendrix opens on Monday in Seattle, Washington, with his brother Leon charging he has been denied his share of the family fortune amassed from merchandising the legacy of the rock legend, who died in 1970.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported on Saturday that Leon Hendrix, 56, born six years after Jimi, charged that his stepsister Janie, 43, who co-manages the family business, cut him out of the will, of which their father was the sole beneficiary.
At stake is a fortune of some $80m that reportedly generates annual sales of several million dollars.
When Al Hendrix, the singer's father, died in April 2002, he left nothing to his son Leon in his will, though an earlier will gave him 24% of the family fortune.
Leon Hendrix claims the change was a result of manipulation by Janie Hendrix, who says her father made the decision because he no longer had a relationship with Leon, who had drug and alcohol problems and wasted the family's money.
Attorneys for Janie Hendrix, who was adopted by Al when he wed her mother, June Jinka, argue that it is she who secured for their father the rights to his son's music and helped turn the debt-ridden estate into a lucrative family business. She co-manages the business with a cousin, Robert Hendrix.
Jimi Hendrix died in London at the age of 27 after releasing just three albums, though he left a great deal of additional recorded music.
The trial is expected to take six to seven weeks, the paper said.
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South Africa
