'Breathtaking audacity' - Former Gov. Dolph Briscoe's children fight over family fortune. Hundreds of millions are stake

During his lifetime, former Gov. Dolph Briscoe Jr. amassed a South Texas ranching empire surpassed in size only by the storied King Ranch. The land and cattle baron assembled more than 600,000 acres stretching over 10 counties. He owned some 15,000 cattle, part of a family fortune that Forbes valued at $1.3 billion six years ago. Briscoe died in 2010 at 87, leaving the family business to his three children to share equally. The Briscoe family remains a force in Uvalde, the slow-beating heart of the region’s agricultural industry. Dolph “Chip” Briscoe III, 67, runs Briscoe Ranch Inc. from an office there, and the family still controls the First State Bank of Uvalde.

Now, Uvalde is one front in a legal battle between Chip Briscoe and the late magnate’s youngest daughter, Cele Carpenter, 64. Hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake. Carpenter and her three children have sued Briscoe, alleging that he persuaded sister Janey Marmion — who was seriously ill for the last decade of her life — to modify her will in 2014, effectively cutting the Carpenter heirs out of a portion of their inheritance. Marmion died in 2018 at age 68. The Carpenters contend that “behind (Cele’s) back, Chip engineered a change in Janey’s estate documents so none of Janey’s assets would go to Cele’s children and Chip’s family would seize control of the business.” The Carpenters live in Dallas and filed a lawsuit there. Carpenter’s three children also filed suit in Uvalde County, challenging the validity of Marmion’s will. Briscoe has yet to file an answer to his sister’s lawsuit in Dallas. But he disputed the allegations made by his niece and two nephews in the Uvalde case. He accuses them of trying to take more than $500 million from a charitable foundation Marmion and her father established to honor her late daughter Kate, who died in 2008 at age 20. Marmion had no other children.