A Michigan jury has determined that a handwritten document found in Aretha Franklin‘s couch after her death in 2018 is a valid will.
The verdict ends the dispute that pitted her sons against each other.
Kecalf and Edward Franklin’s lawyers had argued that the handwritten document from 2014 should supersede the 2010 will that was discovered about the same time at the singer’s suburban Detroit home in a locked cabinet.
The Franklin brothers had disagreed with their brother Ted White II’s assertion that the 2010 will was legitimate.
The jury deliberated for about an hour, returning the verdict on Tuesday, July 11.
“I’m very, very happy. I just wanted my mother’s wishes to be adhered to,” Kecalf Franklin said, according to The Philadelphia Tribune. “We just want to exhale right now. It’s been a long five years for my family, my children.”
Aretha Franklin did not leave a formal, typewritten will.
