The following are samples of interesting wills and estate litigation:

• Leona Helmsley "Queen of Mean"
  When New York hotel owner and real estate investor Leona Helmsley died in 2007, she left her dog Trouble a $12 million trust while two of her four grandchildren recieved nothing.  The court later varied the terms to reduce Troubles trust to $2 million and provided the grandchildren $6 million.

 

• Leo Tolstoy
  Tolstoy left all of his belongings to the stump of the tree.

 

• Jeremy Bentham
  When the English philosopher died in 1832 his wishes were to have his body preserved, dressed, and placed in his chair at the University College of London.  The body remains on display in a protective case at the University to this day.

 

• Countess Carlotta Liebenstein
  When the German Countess died in 1991, she left $80 million to her german shepard, Gunther III.  Gunther and his heirs are to reside in their own mansion complete with a personal maid, chauffer-driven limousine, and a custom-built pool.

 

• George Bernard Shaw
  Shaw left a large portion of his wealth to be used towards the funding of creating a new alphabet.

 

• Nina Shaw
  When Asia's richest women died in 2007 she left her $4.2 billion estate to her personal feng shui consultant.

 

• The tiniest will was written on the back of a postage stamp

 

• The longest will consisted of 95,000 words and took over 20 years to complete

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