Howard Hughes wanted his fortune to fund medicine — instead it was split between 22 cousins and took 34 years to settle

The fortune he left behind would have been worth around $55 billion in today’s dollars, but it was fought over for years and sadly Hughes did not end up leaving the legacy he had likely been dreaming of.

Hughes wanted to support medical research, but his estate turned into a battleground

Howard Hughes died in 1976 and reportedly wanted to leave his estate to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Unfortunately, he did not make that clear with a detailed estate plan.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the lack of instructions led many people to come forward and stake their claim to the fortune he left behind.

These included some interesting characters, like a woman named Terry Moore, who claimed she’d married Hughes on a yacht in international waters, as well as a delivery driver named Melvin Dummar who claimed to have given Hughes a ride to the Sands Hotel in 1975 and who was then allegedly named as a beneficiary in a “will” that was hand-delivered to the Mormon church.

While Moore was paid an undisclosed sum to resolve her claims, despite the fact that there was no clear proof of the marriage, no divorce, and she and Hughes had both married others before his death, a hearing was actually held to determine if the so-called Mormon will was valid.

The court found it to be a forgery, and Dummar became infamous in the process, ultimately becoming the subject of a monologue by Johnny Carson, and a contestant on multiple game shows, then writing a song containing the lyric “hear my warning if you’re driving through the desert, never stop and give anyone a ride. Because if they’re rich and they leave you in their will, it’s guaranteed to screw up your life, like mine.”

Ultimately, over 40 alleged wills and 400 potential heirs sought their share of the prize, and around $2 billion was distributed among 22 cousins in 1983, with litigation continuing for years as different states pursued inheritance tax claims.

It wasn’t until 2010 that the final remaining asset, the Summerlin residential development community near Las Vegas, was liquidated, bringing everything to a close.

What went wrong — and how can you avoid your own drama?

In Hughes’ case, it’s pretty clear what went wrong.

“Howard Hughes died without a will, meaning that his estate passed by intestacy,” John Scheerer, a trusts and estates lawyer and partner at Sacks, Glazier, Franklin, Lodise, McMurtrey & Scheerer, LLP, told Moneywise. “That means his entire fortune was divided among his relatives under a legal formula, not in alignment with his apparent charitable wishes to fund medicine.”

The absence of a will also led to lengthy litigation, with Lauren Davies, a trusts and estates attorney at the law firm Pullman & Comley, explaining to Moneywise, “when someone has a large estate and does not have a valid will, as in the case of Howard Hughes, resolving the estate can often take years and result in the wishes of the decedent not being followed.”