Charlie Sanders
Charlie Sanders' post-life affairs are a mess.
Tresa Baldas of the Detroit Free Press reports that a controversy is brewing in U.S. District Court in Detroit over his $1.1 million in pension benefits from the NFL.
At the heart of the matter is whether his widow, Georgianna Sanders, legitimately remarried the former Detroit Lions star in his hospital room six days before he died of cancer July 2 at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, the Freep reports.
Baldas writes:
The nuptials raised suspicion, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by the NFL Club Employees Pension Plan, which cites an e-mail it received from an attorney who claims Sanders had other plans for his pension money: It was supposed to go into a trust.
"There is a significant question as to whether the marriage is valid," the e-mail stated, referring to the nuptials of Charlie and Georgianna Sanders, who had divorced years before and have eight children together. A follow-up letter to the NFL pension plan explained: "It is the position of the trustee that even if some type of 'marriage ceremony' took place prior to Mr. Sanders' death, he was totally incapable of giving a valid and legally binding consent to any such marriage."
The letter, dated Sept. 11, also threatened "to initiate appropriate legal proceedings," the lawsuit said.
At issue is who should get Sanders' pension money: his widow, or the trust he set up in 2008. The NFL pension plan is asking the court to decide. A similar lawsuit was filed in September by Sanders' life insurance company, Guardian Life, which wants the court to decide who is entitled to Sanders' $321,000 policy: his widow, or the trust.
