The courtroom will be closed to the public when lawyers for Saints and Pelicans owner Tom Benson and his daughter and grandchildren vie for control of Louisiana's largest personal fortune.
At a hearing Tuesday (May 19) in Orleans Parish Civil District Court, Judge Kern Reese ruled in favor of a motion from Benson's legal team to seal all hearings in the case -- including a trial slated for next month that will determine whether the 87-year-old billionaire or his estranged daughter and grandchildren get control of the two sports franchises.
Reese cleared the courtroom after making his ruling, but the brief statements from lawyers gave hints at who might testify: Benson's third wife and heir apparent, Gayle Benson; Saints and Pelicans President Dennis Lauscha; Benson's doctors, nurses and other caregivers; and Benson's daughter, Renee Benson, and grandchildren Rita and Ryan LeBlanc.
It was not clear whether Benson himself would testify. His attorneys also had sought to have him barred from having to speak in court, while lawyers for Renee Benson had filed a motion seeking permission to call him to the stand. Three doctors have already performed a court-ordered evaluation of Benson's mental state.
Reese, however, said that sensitive information would be "entirely interwoven" in the testimony whoever is testifying.
"Every witness at some point or another is going to be speaking about Mr. Benson's condition," Reese said.
Reese in April ruled that all filings in the case would remain confidential to protect confidential information about Benson's health and multibillion-dollar business interests.
Benson's daughter and grandchildren in January petitioned the court to have him declared unable to manage his business affairs, claiming his health and mental state had fallen off after a series or knee surgeries. They cite his decision a few weeks earlier to cut ties with his relatives and his announcement that he planned to will the Saints and Pelicans to Gayle Benson.
Tom Benson's lawyers argued that confidential information about his health and his businesses would become public if the courtroom remained open during hearings in the case.
"This case has attracted significant media attention," Phillip Wittmann, Benson's attorney said in court Tuesday, seeking to have the courtroom closed for the duration of all future hearings.
"If it's not closed to the public, that confidential medical will be exposed to public scrutiny ... you can't segregate the medical and financial records from the witness testimony."
Randy Smith, the lawyer for Renee, Rita and Ryan, said that his clients had endured harsh media scrutiny as "the Benson press machine had spent months churning out all sorts of information about my clients that is not correct."
"Now they want, when the truth is going to come out in sworn testimony, they want to seal the court," Smith said.
Smith suggested that not all of the testimony would deal with sensitive medical or financial information, and asked that Reese seal the courtroom only for selected witnesses testimony.
"When my clients and Mrs. Benson testify, they're lay people," he said.
"Most of the testimony is going to be from non-doctors."
Closing at least portions of a competency hearing is not unusual, even when the stakes don't involve millions of dollars or high-profile litigants, said Susan Meyers, managing attorney for the non-profit Advocacy Center, which provides legal help to people with considerably less money than the Bensons.
"A lot of really personal information is coming out in these cases, and the information is about a defendant, who is someone who is in court basically against their will," Meyers said.
Meyers said she often has seen judges clear the courtroom when testimony veers into sensitive areas, but noted that the audience for such hearings usually is pretty small.
"Usually it's just the lawyers in the case, and maybe a few other lawyers waiting (in the courtroom gallery) for their case to be called," Meyers said. "Obviously, there's a lot more interest from the public in what's going on in this case."
Tuesday's hearing marked the start of a busy week for Benson's legal teams. Wednesday, his lawyers are due to appear in federal court in New Orleans for a hearing that would restrict access to confidential financial information about his privately held businesses, including the valuations of the Saints and Pelicans.
In that case, Benson is suing a trustee that oversees several trusts set up for Renee, Rita and Ryan to allow him to swap out all stock in the teams for promissory notes.
In federal court in Texas on Thursday, Benson's legal team will continue their battle to regain control of another of Renee Benson's trust funds, which holds large stakes of his car dealerships and banking interests. A probate judge in San Antonio earlier this year removed Benson as trustee of the fund, replacing him with co-receivers.