TORONTO -- The daughter of ailing Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard asked a court Wednesday to declare her father mentally incompetent and to appoint a guardian to administer his affairs.
Ballard, 86, is listed in satisfactory condition in Miami's Baptist Hospital, suffering from kidney failure. He had a dialysis tube installed Tuesday during emergency surgery.
Ron Webb, lawyer for Ballard's daughter Mary Elizabeth Flynn, said he expects Ballard's longtime female companion, Yolanda Ballard, to agree that Harold is incompetent under provincial mental health statutes and will ask to be put in charge of his affairs. Yolanda is not related to Ballard but legally changed her lastname to Ballard in 1988.
The court fight, adjourned until Feb. 14, is the latest chapter in the bitter battle between Ballard's three children and Yolanda Ballard for control of his affairs.
Ballard's hockey and business empire, estimated to be worth at least $100 million, are being run by his board of directors in his absence.
Yolanda, 57, is demanding greater involvement in his affairs, saying her care has kept him alive in recent years.
After Wednesday's court hearing, Yolanda went up to the Gardens suite she has shared with Ballard for years, then left, saying Gardens officials would only let her take pajamas and several small figurines. The directors had decided that nobody else could live in Harold's suite while he was still in Florida.
'Those evil, greedy, hungry mongrels,' she said of the directors. 'The man is still alive for God's sake,' Yolanda fumed, before leaving in a cab. Yolanda also has been locked out of a condominium Ballard owns nearby.
On Monday, Dade County Florida circuit court Judge Harold Featherstone turned down Yolanda's bid to have Miami lawyer Paul M. Cowan replaced as Ballard's court appointed guardian there.
In the Toronto hearing, District Court Judge Donna Haley imposed a gag order and is considering holding the Feb. 14 hearing behind closed doors, a move lawyers for the Toronto Sun say they will contest in court.
Yolanda said Cowan, who was hired by Flynn, is not an impartial guardian and has barred her access to Harold.
Yolanda was barred from Ballard's hospital room this week by hospital staff because she tried to feed him a banana even though he's receiving intravenous nourishment.
Directors of Maple Leaf Gardens have cut off Yolanda's allowance. She was reportedly evicted from a Miami hotel near the hospital and can only return if she pays her bills in advance.
Yolanda was nabbed by Canada Customs at Toronto's Pearson International Airport Tuesday for failing to declare thousands of dollars of jewelery purchased in Florida. Ballard's son Bill, vacationing in Miami, told reporters earlier in the day he was going to alert Canada Customs to Yolanda's arrival.
'We're paying for it so we want to know what she bought,' Bill said.
Bill was convicted last fall of assaulting Yolanda in Harold's Toronto hospital room as he recuperated from surgery. Yolanda was convicted in 1980 for fraud in connection with a forged will.
The Fox television network's A Current Affair has been filming a segment on the Ballard saga that will air next week.
Ballard, hobbled for years by diabetes and heart ailments, was flown to Miami's Baptist hospital Jan. 5 when beset by medical problems while vacationing in the Cayman Islands.
Sources close to Ballard's children reportedly said they sought the guardianship in Miami to ensure he didn't marry Yolanda while there.
Ballard had called off a surprise wedding to Yolanda in the Cayman Islands hours before he was rushed to hospital there Jan. 3.
