The youngest child of Al Hill III has questions, and she’s filed a lawsuit in Dallas County probate court seeking answers.
Caroline M. Hill, a 21-year-old student at Vanderbilt University, is seeking access to the books and records for the Lyda Hunt-Margaret Trust. Her lawsuit alleges she is a contingent beneficiary of the trust, which should contain at least $15 million but has instead been “looted” and “dissolved.”
Disputes involving members of the Hill family and the trusts that hold the family’s fortune are not new. But as Hill’s lawyer, William A. “Bill” Brewer III, explained in a recent interview with The Texas Lawbook, his client was “a very small child” when the fighting between her father and grandfather, Al Hill Jr., was grabbing headlines, and some of that fighting predates her birth.
“She literally just wanted information about the trust and the way in which it was administered and what happened to the corpus — all things that, under Texas trust law and the trust instrument itself, she’s entitled to,” Brewer said. “So when Caroline began asking questions and didn’t get satisfactory answers, she asked us to push forward in whatever way the law permits.”
That resulted in the filing of her lawsuit Sept. 5. The petition names as defendants Margaret Keliher, as independent executor of the estate of Albert G. Hill Jr., Carol E. Irwin, as independent executor of the estate of Ivan Irwin Jr., Joyce E. Waller, as co-trustees of the Lyda Hunt-Margaret Trusts, and Galatyn Finance.
Two weeks later, lawyers for the defendants filed a motion in federal court arguing Caroline Hill’s legal action was barred by a 2010 global settlement agreement and final judgment that Hill III reached in litigation over the management of two other trusts, the Margaret Hunt Trust Estate and the H.L. Hunt Jr. Trust Estate.
U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay disagreed with that argument and explained why in a 26-page opinion issued Jan. 30, where he noted there are more than 2,060 docket entries in the “seemingly interminable family dispute.”
“The court is mindful that the Lyda Hunt-Margaret Trust is a separate trust that was never litigated, mentioned, or incorporated into the [global settlement agreement] or final judgment,” he wrote. “Movants’ attempt to expand and stretch the waiver of standing provision to reach the Lyda Hunt–Margaret Trust not only produces absurd and unreasonable results under Texas law … but also conflicts with this court’s prior ruling expressly limiting its continuing jurisdiction to the MHTE and HHTE — not the Lyda Hunt-Margaret Trust.”
The defendants then turned to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In a motion filed Feb. 23, they argued they needed an injunction to prevent the “irreparable harm” that would come “if they are forced to litigate in state court in violation of the final judgment.”
“This Court has weighed in on the 2010 Final Judgment several times, including preventing Caroline’s father, Al III, from upsetting the peace by improperly contesting Al Jr.’s will,” the motion reads. “The district court entered injunctive relief against Al III, exercising its ancillary enforcement jurisdiction. Appellants now ask this court to similarly enforce the final judgment to prevent Caroline from pursuing prohibited state court litigation that violates the final judgment.”
In an unpublished opinion issued by Judges Jerry E. Smith, Catharina Haynes and Andrew S. Oldham March 10, the request for an injunction pending appeal was denied.
Brewer said that means the case will move forward in the probate court, where the defendants are facing a March 16 discovery deadline.
“Hopefully, come Monday, we actually get answers to these easily understood, obvious questions,” he said. “… But it might be that we end up in front of the probate court, getting that judge to help us force them to answer these questions that are properly posed and, we think, required to be fully answered under Texas law.”
The case has been assigned to Judge Ingrid M. Warren.
Counsel for the defendants did not respond to a message seeking comment Thursday.
Hill is also represented by Joshua H. Harris of Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors.
The executors of the estate are represented by Michael J. Lang and Ali Ohlinger of Crawford, Wishnew & Lang, Brian E. Mason and G. Michael Gruber of Greenberg Traurig and W. Scott Hastings of Troutman Pepper Locke. Galatyn Finance is represented by Tom M. Dees III of Hallett & Perrin.
The case number is PR-25-02919-2.