Shelly Sterling was able to sell the Los Angeles Clippers to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer over her husband Donald’s apparent objections because “experts” declared him mentally incapacitated, ESPN reports:
Shelly Sterling became the sole trustee of the Sterling family trust very recently, sources told Shelburne and ESPN’s Darren Rovell, when husband Donald Sterling, the Clippers’ controlling owner, was found by experts to be mentally incapacitated. The rules of the trust did not require a court hearing first to declare Donald Sterling, 80, incapacitated. That allowed Shelly Sterling to negotiate directly with Ballmer and the NBA to sell the team.
Donald Sterling is 80 years old. Two separate lawyers working for him told reporters yesterday that he intends to dispute the sale, though neither apparently addressed the mental-incapacitation issue specifically. The identities of the experts who made the declaration were not disclosed.
