An elderly Long Island heiress claims the lawyer overseeing her multimillion-dollar estate is so tight with her money, he denied her funds for a new wheelchair, according to a suit.
Adele Smithers, 79 — the inheritor of a vast banking fortune who suffers from Parkinson’s — says law firm Holland & Knight has taken her personal trusts hostage, the Manhattan Civil Court lawsuit claims.
“The trustees have declined several of her requests for funds, including for instance, a request for funds to buy a new wheelchair,” the lawsuit claims, and names the family’s longtime attorney, Charles Gibbs, as a trustee.
The heiress’ alcoholic husband started the Smithers addiction-treatment center, which drew famed clients like Darryl Strawberry and Truman Capote.
R. Brinkley Smithers, who died in 1994 after donating almost $30 million to addressing alcoholism, got his money from his Canadian-born grandfather, a leading banker.
Adele Smithers now wants to transfer authority over her affairs away from Gibbs and to a new lawyer.
But Gibbs won’t hand over the files because he believes the elderly woman is not mentally fit to make that decision, the court papers claim.
Gibbs did not return messages for comment.