Famed attorney Bobby Lee Cook has been hired in a dispute over the will of businessman Pierce Allen Yates, who left a large estate when he died last Aug. 25.
He represents Pierce Allen "Allen" Yates Jr., who filed the will contest in Walker County Probate Court.
Allen Yates and his brother, Brewster Yates, were named as executors of the estate when their father made out his will in July 2006. However, Mr. Yates changed his will on May 11, 2007, to substitute wife Jo Ann Cline Yates in the place of Allen Yates as one of the executors.
A filing by attorney Cook says the will, that was prepared by the Baker, Donelson law firm, is "legally vague, ambiguous and legally unenforceable wholly or in part."
It says the will "is not dispositive of the estate but rather attempts to illegally and improperly delegate to others the authority to devise a testamentary scheme for ultimate disposition of the decedent's estate."
Attorney Cook also said that Mr. Yates "did not possess the requisite testamentary capacity to make a valid and binding last will and testament owing to his indecisive and malleable mind which had been manipulated and overpowered by interested parties."
He said the will was "the product of fraud" in that he was "subjected to intense and malicious assertion of false statements" concerning Allen Yates.
Attorney Cook said the alleged false statements were made by "persons who stood to benefit" from changes to the will.
He said there is objection to Jo Ann Cline Yates and Brewster Yates acting as executors "in that their interest is in conflict with and is antagonistic to the estate of the decedent."
The will sets up a trust for the benefit of the widow and the children.
Other children are Harter Pierce Yates of Birmingham, Ala., Sheridan Yates Wood of Kansas City, Mo., and Laura Yates Sikes of Durham, N.C.
Allen Yates and Brewster Yates live at Flintstone, Ga., where the Yates family has long operated a bleachery.
The Yates family also owns large tracts of land in Chattanooga Valley and on Lookout Mountain.
Yates Bleachery Company was founded in 1920 by Arthur E. Yates, father of Pierce, Tom, Edward and Arthur Jr.
In recent years, the bleachery had been operated by Pierce Yates and his sons, Brewster and Allen.
Clifton M. Patty of Ringgold is also involved in the case in behalf of the appointed executors, and Scott Shaw of Chattanooga later joined that legal team.
Probate Judge Foye L. Johnson is overseeing the case.
Carrying out of the terms of the will has been stopped by the will contest, and a hearing has not yet been set.