The legal war over Jimmy Buffett’s fortune just got louder in West Palm Beach, where Jane Buffett filed a new complaint in Palm Beach County on April 6, escalating her year-long fight with co-trustee Richard “Rick” Mozenter over control of the late singer’s trust. Her lawyer told a judge the move came after Mozenter refused to sign a tolling agreement and the window for certain claims was about to slam shut, with the case now set for a bench trial on Jan. 19, 2027 in Palm Beach County, as reported by AOL.
As reported by Palm Beach Daily News, the suit was filed April 6 by attorney William T. Hennessey of the Gunster firm and assigned to Judge Charles Burton in the 15th Judicial Circuit. The complaint says Mozenter first supplied a messy set of online account statements in October and that, by the end of last November, he had paid roughly $6.4 million from the trust to himself, his firm and outside counsel. Matthew Porpora, Jane Buffett’s attorney, told the court at an April 7 hearing that Mozenter would not sign the tolling agreement, prompting the new filing to preserve claims.
A Fight That Began Last Year
The clash dates to mid-2025, when both sides filed dueling petitions in California and Florida accusing each other of mismanaging the marital trust, which court papers value at about $275 million, as reported by the AP. Mozenter first sued in Palm Beach County on June 2, 2025; his original petition and related filings are publicly available here. Since then the litigation has spun out into appeals and fights over whether Mozenter may charge the trust for ongoing legal fees.
Mozenter Pushes Back
Mozenter’s lawyers blasted the new complaint as “a continuation of Mrs. Buffett’s smear campaign” and said their client looks forward to having the facts come to light, per Palm Beach Daily News. They also told the court that the tolling agreement at issue had been signed by the other parties, and that the real fight is over whether the financial disclosures were delivered in a legally adequate format. The dispute now turns on whether the documents Jane Buffett received last fall meet Florida’s standards for a trust accounting and whether that triggers short filing windows for claims.
Legal Stakes and the Tolling Issue
Under Florida law a trust accounting or other written disclosure can start a shortened limitations period for claims, so trustees and beneficiaries sometimes use a tolling agreement to pause the clock while records are reviewed, per the Florida Statutes. Florida’s trust code lays out the mechanics for those limitation notices and the circumstances in which claims may be barred if not timely filed. That legal framework is the reason Jane Buffett’s lawyers say they felt compelled to file before the statute ran out…