In new court filings, Samuel P. 'Pat' Black III argues his fraud claims against adopted daughter and onetime heir apparent, Sumi James-Black, should not be tossed from U.S. District Court in Erie.

On the last day of 2021, Erie entrepreneur Samuel P. "Pat" Black III signed a deal that gave control of his businesses to Sumi James-Black, whom Black adopted as his daughter in 2019, when she was 44.

The deal, known as a "comprehensive agreement," has become the centerpiece of the massive legal fight that Black, 82, has launched against James-Black to try to recoup a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

As Black claims his adopted daughter and onetime heir apparent defrauded him, James-Black is arguing that she engaged in no deceit.

James-Black said she was following the plans outlined in the comprehensive agreement. It was, according to court records, the key document in Black's overall estate plan, in which he disinherited his two biological children, both unmarried sons, and entrusted his businesses to James-Black, partly, according to court records, "to lower his estate taxes upon his death."

The latest filings in the federal lawsuit highlight the divergent views of what happened to Black — whether the loss of his fortune was due to fraud or the result of a plan he now regrets signing on Dec. 31, 2021.

An estate plan, and a intrafamily lawsuit

Black says the fraud claims are justified. He made that argument in response to James-Black's request to get the lawsuit tossed from U.S. District Court in Erie, where it was docketed in April.

As she seeks a dismissal, James-Black is contending that she was operating with the authority that Black gave her under the comprehensive agreement.

Black is arguing that U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter should decline to consider the comprehensive agreement and should allow the lawsuit to proceed. Black claims the agreement is irrelevant to the lawsuit.

And even if Baxter decides otherwise, "nothing in the 'Comprehensive Agreement' purports to grant James-Black a license to do the sorts of things she is alleged to have done," one of Black's lawyers, Elliot Segel, said in a brief docketed on Monday.

"Sometimes 'estate planning' may have been part of a backdrop to some of the wrongful conduct alleged," according to Segel's brief. "Many times that was not the case. Regardless, the matter of estate planning is neither relied upon nor in most instances even relevant" to Black's claims.

James-Black filed her dismissal motion in September. In a brief for that motion, James-Black's lead lawyer, John Mizner, said the comprehensive agreement was essential to Black's estate planning, "which guided the very transfers he is now challenging in this suit."

"And there is no allegation that this critical decision by Mr. Black was made by some improper influence or was executed by him in a state of incompetence," according to Mizner's brief. "That he may now, through the lens of hindsight, wish to undo the plan he thoughtfully created years ago, is not the basis of a civil claim against others who helped implement the plan he once embraced."

Black wants daughter to pay at least $200 million

Black's lawsuit is one of the largest filed in Erie County. He is demanding damages of at least $200 million.

The other defendants are several trusts and other legal entities connected to Black's businesses; the Erie law firm of Knox, McLaughlin, Gornall & Sennett, which represented Black and James-Black in the comprehensive agreement; and Nicole Buzzard, a certified public accountant who was vice president for management and accounting for Black's Erie Management Group.

Erie Management Group oversees Black's holdings, including the Hero BX biofuels plant on the site of the former Hammermill paper plant on East Lake Road. Another holding is Black Insurance Group, the insurance agency Black's father, Samuel P. Black Jr., started on the way to leaving behind a personal fortune of more than $318 million when he died at 99 in 2001.

The Hero BX biofuels plant on East Lake Road is one of the businesses of Erie's Samuel P. &”Pat” Black III.

Black remains the head of Erie Management Group. James-Black was a high-level officer at the business — including its interim CEO and chief operating officer — for about seven years until Black fired her in August 2022.

No hearing yet on dismissal request

The other defendants in the case are also asking Baxter to dismiss Black's lawsuit. No hearing date has been set.

If Baxter declines to toss the case, getting it to trial could take months or years. The filings docketed so far provide a possible preview of the questions that could be raised at trial.

Was James-Black acting in accordance with her adoptive father's estate plan? Or was she carrying out a ruse?

"Mr. Black directed the creation of an estate planning process by very knowledgeable and honorable counsel at the Knox firm," according to James-Black's dismissal motion. "Virtually every act complained of was part of that estate planning process."

To which Black responded, in his newly filed brief: "This is not correct."

Original Article by: Ed Palatte or 814-870-1813. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella.