Shelly Sterling has taken to the courts, trying to prove she has the right to sell the Clippers.
To do so, she must validate the finding that Donald Sterling is not mentally equipped to control the Sterling Family Trust. That finding was based on a series of tests Donald took. Among other issues, he couldn’t:
- Spell “world” backward
- Count down from 100 by 7s past 93
- Name the season
- Draw a clock
Dan Woike of The Orange County Register has a copy of the doctor’s report:
Here’s an example of the type of test Sterling took.
I’m no neurological expert, but I don’t understand how reliable the mental-faculties test Sterling took is for someone like him. He’s a billionaire! Like he ever needed to know what a clock looked like? He’s also an Angelino. Do they even have seasons?
Sterling has always been at least somewhat detached from reality, and a baseline test could have been useful.
It’s obviously too late for that, though.
It’s not too late for more testing.
Sterling might have dementia. I have no idea. But an examination should probably be conducted by a doctor that wasn’t recommended by Shelly.
However, without knowing the terms of the trust agreement, it’s fully possible Donald signed off when the trust was formed on this being an acceptable test. If he did, he set himself up to lose control.
The doctor wrote, “Mr. Donald T. Sterling is unable to reasonably carry out the duties as Trustee of The Sterling Family Trust as a result of, an impairment in his level attention, information processing, short term memory impairment and ability to modulate mood, emotional liability, and is at risk of making potentially serious errors of judgment.”
Sterling is moody, emotional and prone to errors in judgment? It’s a miracle he didn’t lose control of the trust 30 years ago.
