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Jennifer Sherman read a poem this spring at a memorial for her mother, Aliza, who was killed in the city center last year.
(Lynn Ischay / The Plain Dealer)
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Aliza Sherman’s daughter sued her father for $ 2 million, more than a year after her mother was stabbed to death downtown in an unsolved murder.
Lawsuit filed in Cuyahoga County Common Plea Court says Jennifer Sherman, co-executor of her mother’s estate, is seeking to recover money her father, Sanford Sherman, placed in a Merrill account Lynch in 2000. The lawsuit accuses him of unjust enrichment. and civil conspiracy.
The lawsuit, filed last week, said Sanford Sherman had opened the account in Aliza Sherman’s name and made deposits for several years. The account was over $ 2 million.
The lawsuit stated that Aliza Sherman was “totally unaware of the existence of the Merrill Lynch account and / or any activity related to it.”
He also indicated that in 2004, Sanford Sherman and other unidentified co-conspirators created a document that gave him his wife’s power of attorney and forged his signature. The lawsuit said that allowed him to make withdrawals from the fund. The account was exhausted in 2010, according to the lawsuit.
Aliza Sherman learned of the account during divorce proceedings when an accountant discovered the problem, the lawsuit said. The couple filed for divorce on June 20, 2011. The case was due to be tried on March 26, 2013.
Two days before the trial, Aliza Sherman was stabbed 11 times by a masked assailant near her attorneys’ offices in Erieview Plaza. No suspect has been identified.
In documents filed in Cuyahoga County Estates Court in September, Sanford Sherman sought to resign as executor of his ex-wife’s estate “out of respect for the wishes of his daughter, Jennifer Sherman, and in the hope of resolving the family dispute that arose during the control of the administration of the estate. ”
His lawyer in the probate case, Marcia Wexberg, wrote in documents that “Dr Sanford Sherman’s primary goal has been and remains the welfare of his family.”
One of Jennifer Sherman’s attorneys, Adam Fried, declined to comment. Wexberg could not be reached.
The case is before Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Robert McClelland.
Jo Ellen Corrigan, News Researcher at Plain Dealer, contributed to this story.
