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Case file s454 · Music and sport · 2013
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2013
Jerry Buss: Jerry Buss playing the WSOP
Jerry Buss. flipchip / LasVegasVegas.com. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
18 February 2013
Place
Los Angeles, California · United States
Field
NBA owner (Los Angeles Lakers)
Legal tradition
US common law (California); trust law · Common law
Historical event
Lakers' "Showtime" era and five titles in the 1980s
Music and sportBrothers and sisters in courtNowNorth AmericaUnited States

Jerry Buss's sons tried to vote their sister off the Lakers board; she went to court and removed one of them as trustee

Jerry Buss bought the Lakers in 1979 and placed his controlling stake in a family trust for his six children. The trust named his daughter Jeanie Buss as controlling owner and the team's representative to the NBA. Her brothers Jim and Johnny were trustees. In February 2017 Jeanie removed Jim as head of basketball operations†. Johnny then gave notice of a slate of four nominees for the Lakers board that included himself and Jim but not Jeanie. Jeanie's lawyers filed a petition and sought a temporary restraining order, arguing that Johnny, "with the active participation" of Jim, had breached the trust. The brothers dropped the board vote on 7 March. On 27 March 2017 the siblings agreed that Jeanie would remain controlling owner and on the board as long as the family owns the team. She replaced Jim as trustee with their sister Janie. The brothers received no payment beyond existing salaries and trust distributions. In 2025 the family agreed to sell majority control to Mark Walter at a reported $10 billion valuation†.

What the law took from it

A trust that names one controlling child and makes the others trustees sets them against each other, and only clear succession terms decide the fight.

Sources
  1. espn.comPress
  2. CBS NewsPress
  3. abc7.comPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Jerry Buss's sons tried to vote their sister off the Lakers board; she went to court and removed one of them as trustee,” story s454, https://www.celebrity.estate/jerry-buss-2013, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Music and sportBrothers and sisters in courtNowNorth AmericaCommon lawUnited States