Yesterday, Sheel Seidler, widow of the late San Diego Padres baseball owner Peter Seidler, filed an estate lawsuit against her brothers-in-law in an effort to seize control of the team following Peter’s death in November 2023. The lawsuit, filed in Travis County Probate Court in Texas, accuses the late owner’s brothers of breaching their fiduciary duties as trustees of the Seidler Trust, which currently controls the Padres.
The estate lawsuit also includes allegations of racist and sexist behavior, claiming that a spouse of one of the brothers directed “racist, profane, and hateful communications” at Sheel, an Indian-American woman. Sheel’s legal filing accuses the brothers of trying to “wrest control” of the Padres to prevent her, as an outsider and woman of Indian descent, from assuming control of what they view as a “family business.”
In a public statement, Ms. Seidler expressed that she filed the estate lawsuit to protect her family and ensure Peter Seidler’s legacy was carried forward. She emphasized her long-standing commitment to the Padres, stating that she and Peter always planned to pass the franchise on to their children. As the largest individual shareholder and the sole beneficiary of the Seidler Trust, Ms. Seidler is seeking to be named “control person,” which is a formal designation with Major League Baseball.
Although we have not seen a copy of the Trust documents- which are apparently private- based on what we could glean from media coverage, it seems that this estate lawsuit might come down to an interpretation of the late owner’s intent from various estate planning documents. Ms. Seidler notes in her petition that a piece of paper, purported to be in Peter Seidler’s handwriting, lists Ms. Seidler, followed by their children, as her husband’s preference for future control person. The trustees dispute the validity of the document, stating “the trustee is exclusively responsible for designating the San Diego Padres’ next control person” and added “in 2020, in connection with Peter’s appointment as control person, Sheel agreed in a sworn document that she had no right to be or to designate the control person and that she would not interfere with the designated control person.”
If all of the foregoing is accurate, Ms. Seidler might face an uphill battle. At least in New York trust and estates lawsuits, handwritten documents that purport to supplement or change otherwise unambiguous estate planning documents, which are not duly executed and witnessed, are oftentimes disregarded by the courts.
Peter Seidler, who passed away at 63, had been a beloved figure in the Padres organization. He became the control person in 2020 and was known for his aggressive investments in player payroll despite the team’s small-market status. However, following his death, the Padres have significantly reduced payroll, raising questions about the team’s direction under new leadership, especially amid the uncertainty caused by the ongoing litigation.
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