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Pendergrass widow wins ruling in estate battle

Teddy Pendergrass' son and namesake submitted a fraudulent will to try to gain control of the singer's estate, a Montgomery County Court judge has ruled.

Teddy Pendergrass' son and namesake submitted a fraudulent will to try to gain control of the singer's estate, a Montgomery County Court judge has ruled.

The decision from Judge Stanley Ott means the Pendergrass estate will remain under the control of his second wife, Joan, and will not shift to Theodore "Ted" Pendergrass II.

At stake in the years-long dispute between son and widow has been not a large sum of money or property - Pendergrass had little of either before his death in January 2010 - but control over the singer's legacy.

Each side presented different wills - with different dates - purportedly signed or approved by Teddy Pendergrass. One, from March 2009, made Joan Pendergrass the primary beneficiary. Ted Pendergrass argued that a second will, dated May 2009, left the estate to him.

Ott ruled that the second document was fraudulent. He also found that Ted Pendergrass' testimony about the will was "wholly lacking in credibility," according to the ruling, filed Tuesday.

After gaining fame as the lead singer with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Teddy Pendergrass became an international solo artist in the 1970s. In 1982, he was paralyzed after a car crash on Lincoln Drive.

Testimony suggested that the singer had almost no money when he died after complications from treatment for colon cancer. After his death, the family lost his Penn Valley home to foreclosure.

But future returns could be at stake. Joan Pendergrass had put plans for a movie about the singer's life on hold while the estate was settled, according to her attorney, Don Foster.

The acrimony among family members has been long-standing. Relatives had two separate funeral receptions after Pendergrass' death and have spent much of the ensuing years battling in court.

The hearings in Montgomery County focused on whether Teddy Pendergrass was capable of signing his own name - his son said he could, his wife said he could not - and whether he left his home with his son in May 2009, when the younger Pendergrass said he drove his father to Delaware to have a will notarized.

Ott wrote in his ruling that the younger Pendergrass gave conflicting accounts of that will, and concluded that it was a "tall tale" hatched when the son "learned he was being disinherited by his father."

The decision allows Joan Pendergrass to register her March 2009 will, which leaves most of the estate to her. A smaller sum would go to a charity the musician ran, and a painting of Pendergrass would be left to his son.

But the battle may not be over.

The younger Pendergrass "respectfully disagrees" with Ott's ruling and is considering his options, his attorney, Timothy Holman, said Tuesday. Ted Pendergrass could appeal Ott's most recent ruling that he submitted a fraudulent will - or challenge the validity of the March 2009 will.

Foster called the long-running dispute "a very emotional roller coaster" and said Joan Pendergrass was pleased with the ruling. Preserving her husband's legacy, he said, "is really what she considers to be her mandate."