Ted Williams' daughter sues museum

[Eric]

Ted Williams' daughter sues museum
The Associated Press


The daughter of late baseball star Ted Williams is suing the San Diego Hall of Champions Sports Museum in a bid to retrieve several trophies and memorabilia items she claims she owns.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in San Diego County Superior Court, states Claudia Williams is entitled to Williams' 1946 and 1949 AL MVP trophies, his 1991 Presidential Medal of Freedom, articles of Williams' clothing and two game-used bats from 1941, when Williams was the last major league player to bat .400 or higher.

Claudia williams is Ted Williams' sole heir.

The dispute centers on whether the items were loaned to the museum or given as gifts from Williams to museum founder Bob Breitbard, a longtime friend and high school teammate of Williams from Hoover High School.

The museum obtained the MVP awards and medal of freedom in 1992 and they were subsequently put on display.

"Ted isn't around to testify. Let's see what their proof is," said Peter Sutton, attorney for Claudia Williams and her mother, Delores. "We're asking for it all back."

Neither Breitbard, who is named as a defendant in the case, nor his attorney, Reg Vitek, immediately returned phone calls from The Associated Press on Wednesday. Previously, Vitek has said the items were gifts and indicated the museum would try to keep them.

Vitek has also previously said the museum resisted the Williams' family demands because Breitbard is still owed more than $265,000 from Ted Williams' now-deceased son, John Henry Williams.

Sutton said John Henry's debt to Breitbard should not have any bearing on property belonging to Claudia and Delores, Ted Williams' third wife.

Claudia Williams' complaint also seeks damages, an inventory of the Ted Williams memorabilia at the museum and an accounting of all revenues and profits received by the defendants from the Williams memorabilia.

Ted Williams died in 2002.

[Eric]

Williams' daughter sues Hall, Breitbard

Display memorabilia just on loan, she says

By Brent Schrotenboer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 26, 2006

DON KOHLBAUER / Union-Tribune

Ted Williams' daughter wants the game-used bat he's holding in 2000 photo.
The daughter of Ted Williams filed suit yesterday against the San Diego Hall of Champions Sports Museum to retrieve several trophies and memorabilia items she claims are owned by her as Williams' sole heir. The suit, filed in San Diego County Superior Court, states that Claudia Williams is entitled to Williams' 1946 and 1949 MVP trophies, his 1991 Presidential Medal of Freedom, articles of Williams' clothing and two game-used bats from 1941, when Williams was the last major league player to bat .400.
In dispute is whether the items were loaned to the museum or given as gifts from Williams to museum founder Bob Breitbard, a longtime friend and high school teammate of Williams from Hoover High. The MVP awards and medal of freedom were obtained by the museum in 1992 and subsequently put on display.
“Ted isn't around to testify. Let's see what their proof is,” said Peter Sutton, attorney for Claudia Williams and her mother Delores. “We're asking for it all back.”
Breitbard, who is named as a defendant in the case, yesterday declined comment. His attorney, Reg Vitek, didn't return a call seeking comment. Previously, Vitek said the items were gifts and indicated the museum would fight to keep the items.

Vitek also previously said they resisted the Williams family demands because Breitbard is still owed more than $265,000 from Ted Williams' now-deceased son, John Henry Williams. Breitbard loaned John Henry $500,000 in 1993, according to a letter signed by another Breitbard attorney, Robert Caplan. Sutton said John Henry's debt to Breitbard does not and should not have any bearing on property belonging to Claudia and Delores, Ted Williams' third wife. Claudia Williams' complaint also seeks compensatory damages, an inventory of the Ted Williams memorabilia at the museum and an accounting of all revenues and profits received by the defendants from the Williams memorabilia.
The suit includes as “Exhibit A” an agreement signed by Delores Williams and Breitbard dated July 9, 1992. It cites “articles” as “the property of Mrs. Delores Williams or her assigned agents” that are on “permanent loan” to the museum.
Sutton said “permanent loan” is an oxymoron. Also, Delores Williams apparently crossed out the word “permanent,” and in her handwriting replaced it with “temporary” in reference to the loan of the articles. She also wrote that the property “can be recalled at any time.” It is not clear when the changes to the contract were made, and describes only the 1949 MVP trophy.
Two days after the museum contract was signed in '92, the Union-Tribune published a story that described the two MVP trophies and Medal of Freedom as “on loan for permanent display.” The article states Ted Williams said that he and his family decided San Diego “was the right place for the trophies to be exhibited.”
Ted Williams grew up in San Diego and first signed with the Pacific Coast League Padres. He played 19 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, was named an American League All-Star 18 times and twice won the Triple Crown.
Delores married Ted Williams in 1967 and is the mother of John Henry and Claudia. The couple divorced in 1973, and Ted gave Delores “all of his personal baseball memorabilia that he had moved into their Vermont home,” according to the suit. After Ted Williams' death in 2002, the suit states the items became property of Ted's heirs: Claudia and John Henry, who died in 2004.
Before John Henry died, he sparked a long legal fight by arranging to have his father's remains frozen at a cryogenics lab in Arizona, ostensibly to preserve his father's DNA for future use. John Henry's remains reportedly were frozen and stored there, too.
“We tried to resolve it amicably, but I guess they didn't take us seriously,” Sutton said. “They didn't even respond to us.”