LOS ANGELES -- In the latest twist to the Alfred Bloomingdale-Vicki Morgan scandal, the court has agreed to let the estate of the slain model pursue a posthumous lawsuit against the late millionaire, it was disclosed Wednesday.
Attorney Michael Dave said Miss Morgan's mother and the administrator of her estate, Constance Laney, was substituted as the plaintiff in the suit filed in July 1982 against Bloomingdale, a confidant to President Reagan and heir to a department store fortune.
'It was just one more little chapter in the unending saga,' he said of the court's action last week.
If the suit succeeds, the money awarded would go to Miss Morgan's 14-year-old son, Todd.
'Essentially, all assets go to surviving children, and Todd is Miss Morgan's only child,' Dave explained.
The suit, filed by attorney Marvin Mitchelson, originally sought $5 million on the basis of oral and written contracts Bloomingdale allegedly made with Miss Morgan during their 14-year affair.
Mitchelson later amended the 'palimony' complaint to seek $11 million and add Bloomingdale's socialite wife, Betsy, as a defendant, blaming her for breaking up the relationship.
Bloomingdale died of cancer at age 66 in August 1982, but his widow fought the suit and won orders that absolved her of blame and threw out the palimony claims. The suit still seeks approximately $1.8 million for the businessman's alleged written promises to give Miss Morgan half his interest in a pizza chain and to pay her $20,000 a month for two years.
The lawsuit -- which originally caused a sensation because of the Bloomingdale's friendship with the Reagans and Miss Morgan's accounts of sado-machochistic sexual escapades with the businessman -- was pushed into the background last July when Miss Morgan, 30, was found beaten to death with a baseball bat in her apartment last July.
An acquaintance, Marvin Pancost, allegedly confessed the slaying but pleaded innocent and innocent by reason of insanity to murder charges, and is scheduled to stand trial Dec. 5.
The case took another bizarre twist when an attorney conected to Pancoast announced he had possession of video tapes showing Morgan and Bloomingdale cavorting in a sexual orgy with several unnamed government officials.
Attorney Robert Steinberg later claimed the tapes had been stolen from his office, but Beverly Hills police accused him of filing a false police report and obtained a grand jury indictment against the lawyer. A pre-trial hearing is scheduled for Oct. 14.
The lawsuit is not expected to come to trial for about two years. Dave said he would not comment on the possibility of an out-of-court settlement with the Bloomingdale estate.
