As he tries to recoup his dwindling fortune, Erie entrepreneur Samuel P. "Pat" Black III has sued his adoptive daughter in an attempt to force her to pay him hundreds of millions of dollars.
Those cases remain pending in U.S. District Court in Erie and Erie County Common Pleas Court.
Black in the meantime has lost a case that his daughter brought against him.
An arbitrator has found that a Black-controlled partnership owes nearly $335,000 to a trust whose sole trustee is Sumi James-Black, whom Black adopted in 2019, when he was 77 and she was 44.
Black, 83, once designated James-Black, 51, as his heir apparent over what was his Erie-based business empire. The two have been estranged for more than three years as they have become litigants against each other.
Daughter's trust vs. father's business partnership
In the latest case, James-Black's trust in October 2024 filed a complaint in arbitration over claims that the Black Interests Limited Partnership violated a partnership agreement.
James-Black's SJB 2020 Inheritance Trust claimed the breach occurred after Black fired James-Black in August 2022 as the interim CEO and chief operating officer of Black's Erie Management Group. Black claimed he fired James-Black after finding out that she defrauded him — claims James-Black denies.
James-Black's trust claimed in the arbitration case that Black's partnership failed to provide quarterly reports and other financial documents to the trust, as the partnership agreement requires, according to court records. And James-Black's trust claimed the partnership failed to distribute funds to the trust, as the agreement also requires.
An arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association ruled in favor of James-Black's trust on Nov. 13 and awarded the trust $334,395, according to a petition the trust filed in Erie County Common Pleas Court on Dec. 2. The petition asks a judge to enforce the arbitrator's ruling by entering a $334,395 judgment against the Black Interests Limited Partnership.
"This AAA arbitration proceeding is the first decision on the merits in the Black family dispute," said John Mizner, the lead lawyer for James-Black. "It reveals that it is Mr. Black who has caused financial harm to his daughter — not the other way around, as his lawyers have alleged."
A lawyer for Black, Anthony Angelone, said the filing of the judgment petition was premature and unnecessary.
"Putting everything in perspective, the award was a fraction of their initial claim of $1.2 million" in the arbitration case, Angelone said. "We were surprised by the petition, and did not see any purpose in their filing it, since the arbitrator gave us 30 days to pay the award and the 30 days hasn't even expired.
"This just seems like another desperate attempt to shift the focus from the real issues that have been laid out in the federal complaint," Angelone said.
Court cases include fraud claims, dispute over mental fitness
Black sued in U.S. District Court in Erie in May 2024. He claimed James-Black conspired with an Erie law firm and other defendants to defraud him of $200 million from 2017-22 as James-Black helped lead Erie Management Group, the entity that runs Black's businesses. The other defendants are also denying the claims.
Black's businesses include what had been his biggest financial asset — the Hero BX biodiesel plant on East Lake Road, valued at $70 million, according to court records. The plant is in receivership and is for sale.
In Erie County Common Pleas Court, Black sued James-Black in April. He claimed James-Black defaulted on a $902,000 loan that he gave her in 2021 to help her buy a house they were supposed to share in Portugal.
Also in Common Pleas Court, James-Black and her lawyers filed a petition in October to have her father adjudicated an incapacitated person and to have a guardian named for him. James-Black is contending that her father his mentally incapacitated, incapable of making his own decisions and that he is "incompetent to sue," according to court records.
Lawyers for Black are opposing the request. Erie County Judge Joseph M. Walsh III initially set a hearing on the guardianship request for Dec. 3. Walsh canceled that hearing pending another hearing on a petition over an independent evaluation of Black, according to court records.
Feud turns Black's estate plan upside down
The arbitration case is connected to the guardianship case.
James-Black in court records cited her father's testimony at the arbitration hearing, in August, as evidence of his mental decline. James-Black is claiming her father was unable to recall numerous details related to his businesses and his family, including his father, Samuel P. Black Jr.
The elder Black started the Black Insurance Agency, which sells Erie Insurance Group policies. He left behind a personal fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars when he died at 99 in 2001.
Pat Black's adoption of Sumi James-Black was part of his plan to preserve his family's legacy for future generations, according to court records. Black has two biological sons who live in Florida, but the records show Black chose James-Black to run his businesses and inherit them.
Black's estate plan included the creation of the SJB 2020 Inheritance Trust for the benefit of James-Black — the trust that prevailed in the arbitration case.
Original article by: Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com or 814-870-1813