Hillblom heirs settle $1.5-M claims

The heirs of the late business tycoon Larry Hillblom have settled claims of a lawyer suing for arbitration and bad faith litigation, agreeing to pay him and his clients over $1.5 million.

Junior Larry Hillbroom, his guardian Naoko Imeong, Milagros Feliciano, her mother Mercedita; and their lawyers reached the settlement agreement with James E. Hollman, who is guardian to claimant Vo Minh Tan, according to the U.S. District Court.

Federal Judge Alex R. Munson approved the deal yesterday, but ordered to keep the settlement reached with Junior Larry under seal.

Based on the terms of the agreement with the Felicianos, Mr. Hollman will receive $1.5 million from a Bank of Hawaii account that the court ordered to release to plaintiff representing partial arbitration award. Of this amount, $200,000 will cover for attorney’s fees.

The remainder of the $2.1 million previously deposited into the federal court by the defendants, along with the accumulated interest, shall be returned to the Felicianos, according to Judge Munson.

In the separate deal reached with Junior Larry and Ms. Imeong, all monies remaining in the court’s accounts will be transferred to the trust account of attorney Joe Hill for the benefit of the JLH Trust.

About $5.2 million were previously kept by defendants in the account handled by the court, but $1.5 million out of that amount will be paid to Mr. Hollman’s clients as part of the arbitration award by the Felicianos. The amount received from Junior Larry was not divulged as both parties had agreed to keep the terms under seal.

The settlement, however, represented only one of several claims by heirs and their lawyers that are still pending on the hundreds of millions of dollars left by Mr. Hillblom who died in a plane crash on Saipan in 1995.

Judge Munson’s endorsement of the latest agreement came two months after Junior Larry and his lawyers faced contempt of court for failure to comply with three earlier rulings.

On Oct. 12, 1999, Judge Munson found counsels for Ms. Imeong and Junior Larry had acted in bad faith and ordered them to pay Mr. Hollman’s attorneys the fees and costs.

The federal court also prohibited Ms. Imeong and any of her attorney from taking any action to delay the arbitration sought by Mr. Hollman over the share of heirs from the late businessman’s estate, including that of Junior Larry’s and Milagros Feliciano’s.

On Oct. 20 of the same year, Judge Munson ordered the defendants to turn over $4.2 million to the court in order to comply with any judgment of award from the arbitration proceedings.

But because Junior Larry and his counsels failed to appear in scheduled hearings set by the court, they were slapped with contempt charge that was later dismissed.