Fight for South Texas fortune renewed with ruling
The Associated Press
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- The case of an elderly Corpus Christi woman seeking to prove she is the unrecognized daughter John G. Kenedy and heir to a South Texas fortune got a boost with a ruling by the 13th Court of Appeals.
The appellate court overturned a state district judge's ruling that had blocked Ann Fernandez's suit against the two nonprofit organizations that control the 400,000-acre Kenedy Ranch and its considerable mineral assets, the San Antonio Express-News reported Sunday.
"My understanding is we can now pursue the case on behalf of my mom, for her honor and her memory," said Dr. Ray Fernandez, son of Ann Fernandez, 82, who is in a nursing home.
The estate's estimated value is between $500 million and $1 billion.
"They ruled that Ann Fernandez has not had her day in court. Now we will get to demonstrate she was the heir to John G. Kenedy," said Marcos Ronquillo, who represents the Fernandez family.
Lawyers for the John G. and Marie Stella Kenedy Memorial Foundation and the John G. Kenedy Jr. Charitable Trust, which are fighting Fernandez's efforts to prove she is Kenedy's sole heir, did not return calls to the Express-News.
They have said Kenedy's estate was legally closed many decades ago, leaving the parentage issue moot.
When Kenedy died in 1948, he was believed to be sterile and had no known heirs. Fernandez claims he had at least one child with Mary Rowland, a household maid.
Ronquillo expects this ruling to revive a bid to exhume Kenedy's body at the family's La Parra Ranch. The request has been pending at the Texas Supreme Court since it was blocked three years ago.
