Joe Jackson, Michael Jackson’s Father, has filed a suit against the administrators of Michael’s estate, claiming that the will is a forgery. Jackson wants the executors John Branca and John McClain to be disqualified from their positions because they hid a "mistake" in the singer’s 2002 will. The claims of forgery emerged recently when pictures came out of Michael Jackson in New York on the day he was supposed to have been signing the will in California. The attorneys are insisting that witnesses have already confirmed that Michael himself signed the will.
But Joe Jackson is not buying it. His attorney Brian Oxman says:
“The executors have an obligation to tell the court the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But for four months they’ve been silent as to where this will was signed. They are concealing this from the court and you cannot do that."
The petition lists 11 reasons on which Jackson believes the pair should be dismissed as executors, accusing Branca of several conflicts of interest concerning his involvement in the estate. Branca and McClain have struck back at Jackson’s legal challenge.
"These claims filed by Joe Jackson are so outrageous that they don’t deserve any response. John Branca and John McClain, who were designated by Michael Jackson in his will as executors of his estate, will continue carrying out Michael’s wishes for the benefit of his mother, his children and charities," responded Branca and McClain’s lawyer, Howard Weitzman.