LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) – Tom Petty’s widow and daughters are entangled in a legal battle over the late singer’s estate.
According to a petition filed in Los Angeles County court Tuesday (April 2), Petty’s widow Dana York Petty has accused the rock legend’s two daughters from a previous marriage, Adria Petty and Annakim Violette (formerly Petty), of making it impossible to manage his estate.
Dana says that while she is currently the “directing trustee” of the estate, Tom granted his two daughters a say in the decision-making process before his death in 2017. She claims that this has held up the release of a posthumous Greatest Hits album, and led to disputes over unreleased music which was to be included on the 25th-anniversary reissue of his 1994 album Wildflowers. Dana is also accusing Petty’s daughters, particularly Adria, of abusive behavior not only toward herself, but toward his managers, record labels, and the surviving members of their father’s band, The Heartbreakers.
Dana is requesting the court establish an operating agreement that would appoint a manager to exercise authority over any “significant decisions” made regarding Petty’s assets. She further asks that all such decisions require consensus between the three women so as to prevent Adria and Annakim from overriding her.
Adria filed her own petition alleging that Dana has herself conspired to push her and her sister out of decisions involving her father’s estate by failing to distribute Petty’s “artistic properties” into a limited-liability company (LLC) established in Petty’s will.
Adria is petitioning the court to order immediate funding of the LLC, thereby allowing she and Annakim to have a say in the management of Petty’s artistic property.
Petty died on October 2, 2017, of an accidental drug overdose. He was 66 years old.
