Tom Benson's Mental Competency Upheld by Appeals Court: Details and Reaction

Tom Benson, owner of the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans, had his mental competency decision upheld in appeals court on Wednesday. 

According to Katherine Sayre of the Times-Picayune, the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal denied the challenge from Benson's daughter, Renee Benson, and grandchildren, Rita and Ryan LeBlanc, to have Orleans Civil District Judge Kern Reese's decision overturned. 

Last June, Reese ruled that Benson was mentally competent to run both the Saints and the Pelicans after his daughter and grandchildren challenged him in court when he ousted them as successors to his business empire in favor of his wife, Gayle Benson.   

In October, Benson and his daughter agreed to mediation, though Sayre reported last month the full and exact details of the mediation are unknown. 

In January 2015, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk provided a possible explanation for why Benson changed the line of succession:

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In 2012, Rita Benson LeBlanc was removed from the football business due to concerns about her management style, which caused her to have 30 different assistants in six years.  In 2013, the NFL rejected a “poison pill” in coach Sean Payton’s new contract that allowed him to leave the team if Mickey Loomis no longer served as General Manager, based on the belief that Payton wanted Loomis to remain in place as a buffer between Payton and Rita Benson LeBlanc.

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Per Sayre's report, the appeals court disagreed with Renee Benson and Rita and Ryan LeBlanc that Benson should have been required to take the witness stand during his original trial last year. 

Randy Smith, one of the attorneys for the LeBlancs and Benson, released a statement after the appeals court made its ruling: "The court held that a person whose mental capacity is questioned need not be called to the witness stand, a ruling which we believe allows for those manipulating someone in a weakened state to conceal the truth."

Sayre noted that Reese did interview Benson at Saints headquarters in April 2015 and declared in his ruling last summer the "defendant (Benson) has the right to present evidence, to testify, to cross-examine witnesses, and to otherwise participate at the hearing."

Since testifying was Benson's right, not a requirement, Reese determined that Benson was not obligated to take the stand during the testimony. 

Benson, whose net worth Forbes estimated to be at $2.2 billion, has owned the Saints since 1985 and led the franchise to its only Super Bowl title to date (2009). He bought the Pelicans in 2012 after the NBA owned the franchise for more than one year because of financial problems with former majority owner George Shinn.