PROVO — The battle over deceased child actor Gary Coleman's estate is just beginning.
Dion Mial, Coleman's former manager, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in 4th District Court for control of Coleman's estate under a 1999 will that names him sole executor of the estate and will. But Shannon Price, Coleman's ex-wife, plans to contest the will for control of the estate, said Shielia Erickson, Price's spokewoman.
Erickson said she and Price have been shopping for attorneys and hope to have one by the end of the week. Erickson said Price has several significant and supporting documents, including some signed by Coleman or notarized. Price also will have common-law marriage laws on her side, Erickson said, and they're still looking for an updated will.
"We have some jigsaw puzzles going on," Erickson said.
Coleman, 42, died May 28 after suffering a brain hemorrhage at his Santaquin home two days earlier.
Despite the lack of a formal will, Erickson said Price is "100 percent confident" the courts will find in her favor.
But Mial's attorney, Kent Alderman, said as long as no new will is found, Mial will be the executor of the will.
"Dion Mial is a long-term friend of Gary's," Alderman said, "and they did some acting together. He will execute Gary's wishes according to what's laid out in the will."
Price has contested Mial's claim because the 1999 will includes a handwritten amendment that gives all remaining assets to Price, Alderman said. But because the two were divorced, the amendment is void under Utah law, he said.
"They would have had to remarry in order for that amendment to be valid," Alderman said. "Because they were divorced, the divorce decree governed all distribution of assets in their relationship."
Erickson also was Coleman's Utah agent before he died and said she was helping him write a book shortly before his death.
"He knew he had less than a year to live," Erickson said. "He said to me several times, 'Make sure Shannon is OK.' "
Erickson said he told her this for the final time the day before he went to the hospital.
Coleman's 1999 will names Mial the executor of both Coleman's will and estate and names Mial's sister if he is unable.
Among other instructions, Coleman's will states his body is to be cremated and a wake is to be planned for "those who have had no financial ties to me and can look each other in the eyes and say they really cared personally for Gary Coleman."
In regard to the will and Coleman's funeral wishes, Erickson said Price's "only wish is that everything he wants is fulfilled."
Erickson also said there is absolutely no truth to recent claims Price took pictures of Coleman in his final moments in the hospital and some of him after his death and offered to sell them to tabloids.
"It's absolutely not true," she said. "It's been very hurtful."
e-mail: ashaha@desnews.com; jsmith@desnews.com