A Brooklyn family is going to war over a dead hack’s $1.1 million medallion.
Abner Etienne, 78, died cash poor but with the pricy piece of metal last September — and now his wife and nine kids are duking it out in a Manhattan court to cash in on the small fortune.
Etienne’s wife, Jeannine, claimed that the medallion belonged solely to her and her five kids, according to papers filed in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court.
But Abner’s four kids by a different woman are suing to be included as heirs.
Jeannine’s stepdaughter, Chantal Etienne Hyppolite, of Brooklyn, said she learned in July about her stepmom’s attempts to keep the medallion for her own family.
“We were also children and grandchildren of Abner Etienne from different relationships,” Chantal said, referring to her three siblings and her nieces and nephews.
There has not been a will filed in the estate, but in January Jeannine submitted a sworn petition to Manhattan Surrogate’s Court saying that her late husband had only five children.
In her court documents, Chantal says her stepmother was “well aware” Abner had other children — because she helped bring them to New York from their native Haiti and helped raise them.
“I am concerned that we were omitted,” Chantal said in court papers.
“I was raised by my stepmother, Jeannine Etienne, and lived with her until I was 23 years old when I got married and moved out.”
Chantal has two living siblings.
A third has died, but her three children would be in line to inherit their late mom’s share of the medallion.
“I don’t know why she left all these people off,” Chantal’s attorney, Ira J. Forman, told The Post.
“She knew these people, she had them in her own home.”
In a court proceeding yesterday, Etienne’s lawyer alleged that there were problems with dates on the birth certificates submitted as evidence by Chantal and her siblings.
Chantal’s lawyer said the problems could have been typographical errors.
Etienne’s lawyer declined comment.