Two of Paul Newman’s daughters have filed a lawsuit against their father’s foundation, claiming it is being “assaulted” by the board of directors and is going against their father’s intentions.
The action was brought by Elinor “Nell” Newman, 63, and Susan Newman, 69, against the foundation their father established in 2005, three years before his death, called Newman’s Own.
The Newman’s Own Foundation was established to guarantee that the earnings from the sale of Newman’s Own goods were donated to worthy organisations.
Nell and Susan contend that one of the terms under which their father established the nonprofit organisation was that they would each get $400,000 per year to donate to causes of their choice.
It was a failsafe to make sure their father’s philanthropic interest was always maintained.
However, they contend in their complaint that the board of directors, which is comprised entirely of individuals outside the Newman family, has departed from that goal.
According to them, their father was devoted to a number of causes, including the arts, the battle against climate change, and spreading awareness of environmental problems.
However, they claim that the charity’s board of directors has narrowed its mission to simply working to benefit underprivileged children.
Their lawsuit includes the fact that the foundation has cut in half the $400,000 in annual charity contributions.
Two of the actor’s five surviving offspring, the sisters, are also seeking $1.6 million in damages to make up for the cash they claim they were due but didn’t get.
A tenet of Mr. Newman’s beliefs was that his family has continued his humanitarian legacy.
However, Newman’s Own Foundation lost focus and veered away from its goal to preserve and respect Paul Newman’s legacy over time.
The complaint claims that there has been “a lengthy and continuous pattern of disrespect, by those in authority, of Mr. Newman’s explicit objectives and guidance, combined with mismanagement, scandal, and dubious activities” in the years after Mr. Newman’s death.
In 1980, Newman, a renowned figure in Hollywood, began producing salad dressing to give as presents to friends.
He started the company Newman’s Own in 1982, and in its first year of operation, salad dressing sales brought in $300,000.
He proclaimed his desire to “give it all away.” The company has donated $50 million to charity by 1992.
Newman established the Newman’s Own Foundation in 2005 to guarantee that, in the event of his passing, all sales revenues will always be donated to charitable organisations.
2008 saw Newman’s passing. His daughters assert in their complaint that he changed his will three months earlier to remove some of the foundation’s stipulations, but that he wasn’t acting in his best interest at the time.
It released the foundation from its duty to pay the sisters the $400,000 per year that Newman had earlier pledged.
The foundation reduced its sum to $200,000 in 2020 by halving it.
The charity’s CEO, Miriam Nelson, also recently disclosed that the organisation was narrowing its emphasis to solely children.
In a statement, she said, “We think Paul Newman would welcome our emphasis on kids if he were still with us today.”
The board of directors defended its course of action and said that the complaint lacked validity.
The institution of everlasting financial allotments for anybody, including Nell and Susan Newman, is not permitted under best practises for charitable organisations. A spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal that filing a meritless case based on this flawed request would merely take money away from people who profit from Paul Newman’s generosity.
Inquiries made by DailyMail.com were not immediately answered by a lawyer representing the sisters.
Before his passing, Newman had six children from two marriages. Scott, his son, overdosed on drugs in 1978 and passed away at the age of 28.
He has three children with his second wife Joanne Woodward and two daughters with his first wife Jackie Witte.
The other kids aren’t a part of the case, and it’s unknown whether Newman handed them money from the foundation to support their own causes as well.
The actor passed away in 2008 at the age of 83 after a battle with lung cancer.