Manhattan judge agrees to partially open Brooke Astor court file
NEW YORK --A judge agreed on Tuesday to partly open the court file in the family feud over the care of 104-year-old philanthropist Brooke Astor.
In a mixed ruling in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, Justice John Stackhouse said he would make public all documents except for information about Astor's medical condition and care. Any future testimony about her health also would be kept private, he added.
The judge said the Astor file would remain sealed until 5 p.m. Thursday to give the parties in the case a chance to appeal.
Stackhouse had sealed the case in July at the request of Astor's grandson, Philip Marshall, after the Daily News reported that he had gone to court to remove his father as legal guardian.
Attorneys for The Associated Press, the Daily News, The
The news organizations "have shown a legitimate public concern, as opposed to mere curiosity, to counterbalance the interests of the parties in keeping this matter private," Stackhouse wrote.
The judge noted that there was no evidence that extensive publicity about the guardianship battle has caused Astor distress.
"The court has been informed that she is resting comfortably and has not been disturbed by the media coverage of the dispute because she neither reads the papers nor watches television," he said.
An attorney for the news organizations, Katherine Bolger, said though "pleased the judge gave serious consideration" to First Amendment issues, "We're anxious to see how the decision is implemented going forward."
Philip Marshall hadn't seen the ruling and had no comment, said his spokesman, Fraser Seitel.
Astor's charitable efforts through her husband's foundation won her a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in 1998.
But her grandson has alleged that in recent years his ailing grandmother was reduced to sleeping on a filthy couch to escape a cold bedroom and subsisting on pureed peas and oatmeal, the News reported. His father, Anthony Marshall, has denied any mistreatment.
Astor's husband, Vincent Astor, a descendant of 19th-century tycoon John Jacob Astor, endowed the foundation that bore his name before he died in 1959. It gave away approximately $200 million by the time it closed at the end of 1997.
Anthony Marshall, a Tony-winning Broadway producer, is Brooke Astor's son from a previous marriage.
At a hearing earlier this week, Philip Marshall's lawyer, Ira Salzman had argued that intimate detail of Astor's declining health "is not the kind of thing that belongs on the front page of the newspaper."
