Where there’s a will, there’s a way for handwriting experts to prove whether it’s authentic, a judge in the Brooke Astor case ruled yesterday.
State Supreme Court Judge John Stackhouse granted a motion by Susan Robbins, the court-appointed lawyer for the 104-year-old philanthropist, to allow experts to determine whether recent changes made to Astor’s will to leave millions of dollars to her son, Anthony Marshall, were forced or faked.
“I’m pleased . . . especially since it goes against the allegations made by Mr. Marshall’s lawyers that I’m on a witch hunt,” Robbins said of the ruling.
Robbins said she has already retained a top handwriting expert to look at four signatures, supposedly Astor’s, at the bottom of the socialite’s original will and on three amendments, or codicils, to it.
“The problem is her signature on the third codicil looks different. There’s something wrong there,” Robbins said.
The third codicil was signed two years ago, after Marshall sacked his mother’s lawyer of 40 years and hired another attorney, Francis X. Morrissey.
It paves the way for millions of dollars to be left to Marshall, his wife, Charlene, and Morrissey as a co-executor.
Lawyers for Marshall, whose own son has accused him of taking advantage of Astor, tried to block Robbins’ motion.
“Mrs. Astor’s wishes have been expressed. She wanted to give certain gifts to her son, and she did so with the assistance of her attorneys,” wrote lawyer Ken Warner in recent court papers.