Real estate tycoon’s heirs go after their lawyer for malpractice over how estate was split

Late last month, his three oldest children accused their San Antonio probate lawyer and his firm of malpractice for advising them to sign a settlement agreement that allegedly let the trio’s two half-siblings share equally in their father’s estate — even though they weren’t named in his will.

James Val Lee “Val” Cotter, Vivian Mueller and Valeri Cotter Zaharie allege in their suit that attorney Martin “Marty” Roos and his firm, Clark Hill PLC, failed to explain “all the facets of the conflicts of interest that existed between Plaintiffs on the one hand, and their half-siblings, Adam and Andy Cotter, on the other.” Roos represented all five children.

As a result, the three plaintiffs say they entered into a settlement agreement that “drastically reduced the value” of their interests in the estate.

Roos and his firm “placed their interests in collecting excessive fees” above their clients’ interest, the lawsuit adds. 

They are seeking damages of more than $1 million.

Cotter died of cardiac arrest on Jan. 25, 2017. He was 83.

Cotter was described as a self-made man who was often clad in a cowboy hat and boots. 

He built a vast real estate empire that about a year before his death was comprised of 66 properties including office buildings, farms and houses in six states. In San Antonio, his holdings included the Alamo Towers along Northeast Loop 410 and the two Petroleum Towers just around the corner on Tesoro Drive. 

But he also owed a lot to lenders, creditors and the IRS. The companies that owned Alamo Towers and Petroleum Towers landed in bankruptcy after his death. 

San Antonio attorney Marcus Rogers, who was appointed to oversee the estate, previously said Cotter left his companies’ books in disarray, with “substantial intercompany-related accounts that did not balance and had not been reconciled for what appears to be many years.”

Rogers resigned from the post as independent administrator in 2022, but not before Val Cotter accused him in the probate case of mismanaging the estate by selling estate assets for less than their appraised value and generating millions in fees and commissions for himself. Rogers couldn’t be reached for comment.

The estate was estimated to be worth about $166 million at the time of his death, his three oldest children say in their lawsuit. 

A 1981 will they cite allegedly left various specific bequests to his three oldest children: Vivian Mueller, 67, of Washington state; Val Cotter, 64, of San Antonio; and Valeri Cotter Zaharie, 59, of Idaho. The bequests included corporate stock, real estate in Glenn County, Calif., and “the rest of Mr. Cotter’s properties,” the suit says. 

Cotter’s two youngest sons — James Adam “Adam” Cotter, 37 of San Antonio, and James Andrew “Andy” Cotter, who is in his mid-30s, of California, weren’t even born at the time of the 1981 will. They were the sons of Cotter’s second wife, a woman who was more than half his age. That union lasted less than three years.

He married his third wife, longtime companion Ruth Cotter, in 2012. Now 86, she lives in Oklahoma.

Even though Adam and Andy weren’t mentioned in the will, the lawsuit says Roos and his firm decided to represent all five children in the probate case.

The conflicts of interest were “so great” that the attorneys “were obligated to decline representation of all five Cotter Children and advise Plaintiffs to seek separate counsel,” the complaint alleges.

Ruth Cotter challenged the validity of the will less than a month after Cotter’s death.

She and the five Cotter children mediated the dispute and entered into the settlement agreement in late June 2017. It had the effect of the three oldest children relinquishing their rights to the specific bequests to which they were entitled under the terms of the will, their lawsuit says.

The suit further adds, with boldface emphasis, that the agreement provided that the “court’s determination of heirship will be determinative of the beneficiaries of the estate, notwithstanding any written will.”

As a result, the suit says the three oldest children “purportedly forfeited the specific valuable bequests granted to them in the Will.”

The lawsuit doesn’t place a value on the specific bequests, however.

The settlement agreement filed in Cotter’s probate case has an attached redacted exhibit detailing “amounts distributable to beneficiaries.” It shows the five children would equally share $40.4 million, or about $8.1 million each. But it also shows Adam stood to receive about $7.5 million, for a total of $15.6 million.

Ruth Cotter was due to receive $8.6 million, while almost $12.9 million was designated for a marital trust.

Under terms of the will, the three oldest children say their distributions would have been significantly higher. They also allege that if they had not entered into the settlement agreement, Rogers would not have been made the independent administrator and “the loss of value to the estate” that occurred under his administration would not have occurred.

The trio are suing Roos and Clark Hill in state District Court in San Antonio for breach of fiduciary duty and professional negligence/attorney malpractice. The three Cotter children want the defendants to turn over the fees they were paid and pay unspecified punitive damages.