Norman Jewison was a Canadian icon. His sons alleged his wife cut off contact, coerced him to change his will

CBC

01-04-2025

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In his four-decade Hollywood career, Oscar-nominated director Norman Jewison crafted acclaimed dramas like In the Heat of the Night and A Soldier's Story. Behind the scenes, there was allegedly drama in the Toronto-born filmmaker's personal life as well in his final years.
Lawsuits filed in California and Ontario by Jewison's sons and recently obtained by CBC News raise issues that experts say are all too common when family members clash at the end of a loved one's life.
In the court filings, Jewison's sons alleged that his second wife, Lynne St. David Jewison, progressively cut him off from friends and family starting as early as 2010, even taking over his email and phone.
"It is the culmination of Respondent's progressive isolation and control of Mr. Jewison that, alongside the replacement of his longtime financial and legal advisers and uncharacteristic changes to his estate plan, are telltale signs of elder abuse," said the pair of lawsuits filed in May 2023 in Los Angeles Superior Court.
In January 2024, three days after Jewison died, one of his sons also filed suit in Ontario to void his father's will that he had rewritten two months prior. The lawsuit claimed St. David Jewison had used "manipulation, coercion or outright abuse of power" to get the director to disinherit his children and bequeath millions of dollars to her instead.
None of the allegations in the California and Ontario cases were ever tested in court; the claims were ultimately resolved through multiple mediations, with different combinations of family members, spread out over 16 months. In the Ontario case, which also involved former premier Ernie Eves, a Superior Court judge in Toronto signed off on a settlement this past January, one year after Jewison died at age 97.
'Afraid I may never … speak with my father again'
The sons' California court filings alleged that their father "became heavily dependent" on St. David Jewison after he suffered a series of strokes in 2010. They married later that year.
The applications stated that Jewison could no longer drive and that his wife became the gatekeeper of his communications and schedule, eventually also taking over his email and phone.
Kevin and Michael Jewison also stated that they noticed their father making "uncharacteristic changes" to his estate planning, including "the abrupt resignations of his lawyers and accountants of more than 40 years," starting in 2021.
They alleged that they raised concerns about this, but that St. David Jewison then "made it even more difficult … to contact their father," before sending a final text message from her own cellphone. The May 2022 text that cut off contact with Jewison's children was allegedly signed "Dad."
Both sons stated that, as of May 2023, they hadn't been able to see or speak with their father in a year despite attempts to do so.
"It is inconceivable to me that he does not want to see and speak to his children and grandchildren," Kevin Jewison, a camera operator and cinematographer, said in a sworn statement filed in the case.
Michael Jewison, a producer who worked alongside his dad on a number of movies, including The Hurricane, stated in his sworn statement: "Absent judicial intervention, I am afraid that I may never have the opportunity to see or speak with my father again."
An email last month from St. David Jewison's lawyer, Ian Hull, noted the allegations against her were unproven and said she believes the claims against her were untrue.
CBC reached out to Norman Jewison's children and St. David Jewison for their perspectives. None would agree to be interviewed.
The sons ended up withdrawing their applications shortly after filing them, following a request by St. David Jewison that they all attend mediation.
After mediation, they were once again able to communicate with their father, though it was limited to brief videoconferences with St. David Jewison's lawyer present, according to Michael Jewison's subsequent Ontario lawsuit.
In addition, the mediation opened the door for an agreement with Kevin Jewison and sister Jennifer Jewison Snyder in regards to their father's estate. According to Michael Jewison's subsequent Ontario claim, the two siblings got certain properties and farm equipment, as well as the rights to the 1973 film version of Jesus Christ Superstar, which their father directed and produced.
But Michael Jewison didn't agree to the terms and wasn't included in the agreement.
WATCH | Remembering Norman Jewison, one of Canada's most acclaimed directors:
Acclaimed Canadian director Norman Jewison dead at 97
1 year ago
Duration 3:13
California law let sons sue for access
Lawyer Dani Kaiserman, a Los Angeles-based expert in elder law, said the kinds of family conflicts alleged in the Jewison cases "are so common."
As a loved one ages, there's often tensions in families, disagreements that come up between siblings or with a new spouse," she said.
Jewison's sons were able to sue in California because their father and St. David Jewison lived part-time at a beach house in Malibu, Calif., when they weren't at properties in Ontario.
The brothers resorted to a California law that came into force in 2023 — it has no equivalent in Canada — and allows a person to apply for a court order allowing contact when there's evidence that an elderly or dependent adult has been cut off from that person against their wishes, and that it was not done to protect them from abuse by that person.
"This gets you in front of a judge where you can ask for a court order to visit and see your loved one and stop the isolation relatively quickly," said Kaiserman, who worked to get the statute passed.
So the two men sought a court order allowing contact against St. David Jewison that would let them speak to their dad privately.
Kaiserman said her organization alone has handled 15 to 20 cases under the California elder-access law in the last two years.
In Canada, there are other ways people can regain access, such as applying to become a guardian or involving a provincial agent known as the public guardian and trustee.
But these efforts take more time and can cost more money, said lawyer Laura Tamblyn Watts who is also the CEO of CanAge, a Canadian organization that advocates for seniors.
"In Canada, it's very hard. You're probably going to call the public guardian and trustee. If you have funds, you're going to call an estate litigation lawyer and try to get in there. You may be able to call some community-based organizations," Tamblyn Watts said.
Wills changed between 2014 and 2023
The family strife did not end after Jewison died on Jan. 20, 2024, at age 97.
Following a storied career directing Hollywood classics such as Moonstruck, Fiddler on the Roof and The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming, Jewison left an estimated $30 million after estate taxes, including the Malibu home, a cottage on Lake Simcoe in Ontario, a ranch northwest of Toronto and royalties from his films, according to court records.
A will he signed in 2014 would have given St. David Jewison the Malibu beach house and some other funds (and mentioned "gifts of money and property" previously given to her), but the bulk of his fortune was to be divided among Jewison's three children.
Then in November 2023, a little over two months before he died, Jewison signed a new will. It saw all three of his children written out, with the leftover amounts after various bequests — an estimated $27 million — to be split between St. David Jewison and a fairly new charity where she was a director, the Norman and Lynne St. David Jewison Foundation.
Another major change was that Jewison's 2014 will named his longtime accountant, his lawyer and a friend as executors. The 2023 will appointed just one person to the position: former Ontario premier Ernie Eves. Eves had also become a corporate director of a number of Jewison's companies starting in 2022.
Eves lives up the road from the Jewison ranch in Caledon, Ont., moved in the same social circles, and is also listed as a director of the charitable foundation named in Jewison's 2023 will.
Three days after his father died, Michael Jewison filed his Ontario lawsuit to void the 2023 will.
Lawsuit claimed children not given chance to say goodbye
In his 2024 claim, Michael Jewison alleged that St. David Jewison had exerted "control and dominance" over his dad to get her hands on his wealth.
"She successfully prevented Norman's assets and his wealth from being inherited by Norman's children, and instead inherited tens of millions of dollars for herself," the claim said.
Michael Jewison also claimed that the 2023 changes to his father's will were the product of "undue influence" on his dad by St. David Jewison, aided by Eves, and that his father couldn't have had the necessary mental capacity to rewrite his will so close to his demise.
Neither Eves nor St. David Jewison replied to questions from CBC News about why Jewison made all the changes he did, and why Eves specifically was chosen as executor.
Tamblyn Watts, from the seniors advocacy organization, said while these types of concerns with wills are not uncommon, getting a will voided or varied by a court is not an easy task.
Speaking generally and not about the Jewison case, Watts said that a judge would look at such factors as, "Did you really know what you were doing when you changed it? Did you really understand the implications to the other family [members] or the people that you're cutting out?"
But ultimately, she says, the court requires a "very high standard" of proof to vary someone's will and most people don't pursue it.
Michael Jewison's claim went on to say that he and his siblings weren't even informed when their dad was entering his final weeks of life and started to receive hospice care. "Neither Michael nor his family were given an opportunity to say goodbye to Norman," it stated.
Responding to questions sent to Eves, his lawyer Chris Paliare wrote to CBC News that Eves "cannot comment." His email continued: "The allegations … regarding Mr. Jewison's final years, and the actions of Mr. Eves and Ms. St. David Jewison, are unproven, and in Mr. Eves's opinion, untrue."
Hull, St. David Jewison's lawyer, said she "adopts and confirms" those statements from Eves's lawyer.
Michael Jewison's lawsuit was settled in January. A judge approved a deal between him and his daughter, on one side, and St. David Jewison, the Norman Jewison estate and Eves as executor, on the other. Michael Jewison is to get $6.8 million, the rights to and residuals from 23 of his father's movies and the forgiving of loans that at one time totalled more than $3 million.