Hawaii entertainer Don Ho’s heirs in legal fight over reunion event
By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer
| |||
More legal wrangling has broken out among the heirs of entertainer Don Ho.
Trustees of the Don Ho Trust filed suit in federal court against one of Ho's children, Dorianne "Dori" Ho, to stop her from staging a Don Ho Show reunion on Friday at Aloha Tower.
Also named as defendants in the suit are F.L. Inc., the operator of Don Ho's Island Grill at Aloha Tower, and Tianna Johnson, identified in the suit as a business associate of Dori Ho.
Fred Livingston, owner of F.L. Inc., said that Don Ho's Island Grill is available for rental, and his company has rented it to Dori Ho for the reunion Friday night and that as far as he is concerned, the event will take place.
Dori Ho said the same thing.
"It's a big family event that's supported by a majority of the beneficiaries of my father's estate," she said.
"We basically just wanted to say thank you to all of the people who worked for and supported my father over the years," she said.
"I'm talking about all the waiters and waitresses, the musicians, the bodyguards, everybody who knew my father at the peak of his career, during the glory years at the Polynesian Palace," Ho continued.
"It's really a private, invitation event," she said, although a Web site, www.donhofamily.com, is operating and offering tickets to the event at $30 per person.
Dori Ho said the Web site just began operating this month as a vehicle to to simplify bookings to the reunion event.
"You really have to be searching the Web to find it," she said.
"This is not about making money," she said. "If the trust wants the money, they can have it."
Dori Ho said the federal suit "is just another example of the oppressing and harassing" tactics the trust has been using against some Ho family members.
"Every move we make has been attacked," she said.
The suit alleges that the defendants' unauthorized use of the Don Ho name, trademark and likeness has caused the trust "significant and irreparable injury."
Don Ho died April 14, 2007, of congestive heart failure at age 76.
A legal settlement on distribution of the Ho estate's assets among his beneficiaries was reached last year and approved by Circuit Court Probate Judge Colleen Hirai. Terms of the settlement are confidential.
Dori Ho, one of the singer's six children by his first wife, Melva, unsuccessfully challenged the settlement after she had agreed to its terms.
She claimed that when Don Ho signed his trust agreement in September 2006, he was too impaired by medical problems to make informed decisions.