Campbell Estate heiress Abigail Kawananakoa found unfit to manage financial affairs

A judge ruled Thursday that Campbell Estate heiress Abigail Kawananakoa is mentally unfit to handle her own financial affairs.

Following a three-day hearing in 1st Circuit Court, Judge James Ashford issued an order saying a conservator should be appointed to oversee the personal finances of the 93-year-old descendent of Hawaiian royalty.

“Ms. Kawananakoa is a charming and gracious lady, in the best sense of the word. She has a great sense of humor and is tremendously endearing,” Ashford wrote in his order.

“Nevertheless, the Court finds by clear and convincing evidence that for reasons other than age Ms. Kawana­nakoa is unable to manage her property and business affairs effectively because of an impairment in her ability to receive and evaluate information or to make or communicate decisions” even with technological assistance.

The court also found evidence that Kawananakoa’s property is being “inappropriately wasted and dissipated” and will continue to be wasted or dissipated unless it is managed by a conservator.

A conservator, among other things, would help Kawananakoa oversee her struggling horse breeding operations in Waimanalo and Nuevo, Calif. — apparently losing some $4 million a year — and would take care of her unfiled gift tax returns.

This week’s court hearing was the latest skirmish in the ongoing legal battle over Kawananakoa’s $215 million estate, pitting her former longtime attorney and now successor trustee, James Wright, against her longtime partner and now wife, Veronica Gail Worth Kawananakoa.

Ashford’s order comes nearly two years after Probate Court Judge R. Mark Browning ruled that Kawananakoa was not mentally capable of changing or revoking her trust or of firing and replacing its trustee. He appointed First Hawaiian Bank as successor trustee, replacing Wright, but legal wrangling has prevented that arrangement from going forward. So Wright remains trustee.

The latest proceeding, covering financial issues outside the trust, included an updated mental evaluation by Los Angeles psychiatrist Dr. David Trader, the same doctor who examined Kawananakoa after her 2017 stroke and concluded she lacked financial capacity and wasn’t able to make complex decisions.

In his order, Ashford said he found Trader’s analysis and conclusions important. He also found Kawananakoa’s testimony “particularly persuasive.”

Following Thursday’s ruling, Wright said, “I am sad for my friend. I kept my promises to her. There are many issues to be resolved that a conservator and First Hawaiian Bank taking over for me as trustee can accomplish, and I believe she can be spared further harm and exploitation.”

Roseanne Goo, attorney for the Abigail KK Kawananakoa Foundation, which had petitioned the court for the conservator, said the nonprofit is grateful for the prayers and support it received as it tried to protect Kawananakoa and her resources.

“The Foundation Directors acknowledge with gratitude that Miss Kawananakoa will receive a conservator but it is also important to recognize that the conservator must be able to fully protect her and her property from the current conflicts of interest if the best interest of Ms. Kawananakoa is to be paramount,” Goo said in a statement.

“There is still more work to be done and the Foundation will stay the course to ensure that Ms. Kawananakoa’s commitment to the Hawaiian people is not lost to the greed and avarice that has thus far gone unchecked despite its efforts and the efforts of Jim Wright, her successor trustee, (former Kawananakoa housekeeper) Thongbay Smart, its Co-Petitioner, Randy Morikawa (guardian ad litem), and everyone who lent their support to our combined efforts to get Miss Kawananakoa and her resources protected,” the statement said.

On the witness stand Wednesday, Kawananakoa attacked the foundation’s directors and said she wants to control the entity she created in 2001 to administer about half of her fortune as a charity for Native Hawaiian causes after her death.

The directors — Oswald Stender, Lilikala Kame‘eleihiwa and Jan Dill — have said their only interest is protecting Kawananakoa and her legacy to the Hawaiian people.

Kawananakoa’s attorney, Bruce Voss, couldn’t be reached for comment.