When Kobe Bryant and the others went down in a fiery plane crash, some people had a premonition that 2020 was going to be a bad year. But few would have been able to predict that COVID-19 would throw the world into a standstill. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Kobe Bryant’s widow wants a court judge to amend Kobe’s will.
Vanessa Bryant is asking the judge to include their youngest daughter, Capri, who was born after the document was drafted. The trust has been amended several times over the years, usually to include the children more accurately. However, the document has not been changed since 2017. That meant that Kobe Bryant and his beloved widow, Vanessa, were unable to modify the document to include Capri before the NBA legend’s death on January 26, 2020.
Vanessa has filed a “petition to modify” the trust of the NBA legend in a Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday. She has simply asked that the trust be modified to include the now nine-month-old Capri who was born after the document was last updated.
Kobe first created his trust to provide for his wife and children back in 2013. Over the years, he and Vanessa modified the trust to make it more inclusive of their growing family. But the last time it was modified was in 2017, which came before the birth of their little girl Capri.
In addition to Capri, who is less than a year old, Kobe Brant was the father of Natalia, 16; Bianka, 2; and now-deceased Gianna, 13. Bryant was forty-four when he died in the helicopter crash.
The petition to the judge states that “Upon Vanessa’s death, the Bryant Trusts will be divided into two shares, not three. This was not Kobe’s intent. Nor does it accomplish the primary and material purpose of the Trust – to provide for Vanessa and all his children with Vanessa after his death. Petitioners, therefore, propose to modify (the Trust) to include Capri and her descendants as beneficiaries.”
Bryant never intended to leave his youngest daughter out of the trust. She was simply born after the last time it was amended, and he died before he was able to include her in the official document. But everyone knows this is what he would have wanted.
“By her signature hereto, Vanessa consents to the medication. Additionally, before the hearing on this petition, petitioners will file an ex parte petition to appoint James R. Summers to act as the guardian ad litem for Capri and her unborn and unascertained issue, as well as an ex parte petition to appoint Erika Williams to act as the guardian ad litem for Natalia and Bianka and the unborn and unascertained issue of each of Natalia and Bianka. Upon consent of the guardian and litems, all beneficiaries will have consented to the modification of the Trust.”
Do you think the judge will grant Kobe’s widow’s request to add the youngest daughter?