Suit against late comic Bishop's companion can proceed
Lawyers for Joey Bishop say former live-in companion exploited his ill health to get multimillion-dollar Newport home.
By DEEPA BHARATH
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
January 12, 2009
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ralph W. Dau said he will consider attorney Ed Gregory Hookstratten's motion before issuing a final decision on the matter, but has not said when he will make that determination.
Nora Garibotti, who lived with Bishop in his Newport Beach home for the last eight years of the comedian's life, filed a lawsuit May 8 alleging legal malpractice by former Bishop lawyers Hookstratten and James E. McCormick. She accused the lawyers of not handling Bishop's trust in accordance with his wishes. Garibotti said she was entitled to cash and the multimillion-dollar Newport Beach home where she lived with the comic since 1999, after his wife died. Bishop died in October 2007 at age 89.
The proposed countersuit alleges that Garibotti in July 2007 directed Bishop to write two notes leaving his Newport Beach home and $60,000 in cash to her at a time when he was ailing and struggling with severe dementia.
"These handwritten notes were the direct result of undue influence exercised by the caregiver, Garibotti, on the severely demented and incompetent Joey and therefore constitute financial elder abuse," court papers state.
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