Douglass family saga ends with focus on Harlan’s partner

About the same time in 2016 that Spokane developer Lanzce Douglass flew down to Palm Springs to meet with his estranged father, Jerri Via delivered the elder Douglass an ultimatum.

Via entered a relationship with Harlan Douglass while Harlan’s wife, Maxine Douglass, was still living in a care facility as she battled Alzheimer’s disease. At the time, Via told the aging developer that he either had to break off contact with Harley, his eldest son, or her.

“I explained about how many people feel that HCD (Harley C. Douglass) is isolating him from the people that love and care for him, Bryan (Reilly) and myself, and he lightly disagreed,” Via wrote in an email on Jan. 26, 2016. “I explained that I cannot be with him without him supporting me with HCD and his response ‘Are you supporting me?’ I said yes.”

In fact, when about $1 million in cash and jewelry were stolen on Sept. 26, 2015, from Harlan’s home on 59 acres in Colbert, Via told investigators that she suspected Harley Douglass, according to court testimony.

In the same January 2016 email with the ultimatum for Harlan, Via pointed blame at Harley’s wife, Lisa Douglass, who also goes by “Missy.”

“Where is Missy in all this now????” Via wrote to Douglass Properties manager Rachel Murphy. “Missy “is no where around and ‘she was going to solve this robbery.’ More certainty that SHE is involved …”

Reilly, the man Via mentioned in that email, was later found civilly responsible for the theft of cash taken from four shoeboxes and was ordered to pay Harlan $1 million in restitution.

Those conversations with Harlan, who began in 2016 displaying memory lapses that eventually developed into dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, became the crux of the legal battle currently raging over the estate of Harlan, who died on Nov. 26, 2023, at the age of 86.

In the lawsuit, Harley challenged a will signed on May 2, 2019, that gave Lanzce 65% of the estate, sister Stacey Douglass Boies 35% and Harley $1,000.

Harley, who argued that Lanzce and Stacey exerted undue influence on their father to change the will at a time when he had become vulnerable, is seeking to have Superior Court Judge Jacquelyn High-Edward enforce a will from 2018 that would split the estate equally between all three Douglass siblings.

That means that if High-Edward sides with Harley’s argument to use the 2018 will, it would reduce the value received by Lanzce, based on his own court testimony, from about $245 million to about $123.3 million, and Stacey’s take would fall from $125 million to $123.3 million after taxes.

Testimony for the trial that started earlier this month ended on Monday.

“I think our time together has come to an end,” High-Edward told the parties. “I will issue a ruling as soon as possible.”

Steve Hassing, who represents Harley, now has 30 days to write his closing argument. Attorneys for Lanzce and Stacey – Jason Burnett, Gregory Porter and Karolyn Hicks – get the same 30 days after that to write their final argument.

Hassing gets 10 days to respond, and High-Edward will then issue a ruling within 90 days of that final submittal.

Lanzce and Stacey

Earlier in the trial, Lanzce, who has built his own real estate empire in and around Spokane that rivals his father’s, testified that he had been estranged from Harlan from about 2008 until he received the invitation in 2016 from Via to visit his father in Palm Springs.

He described the “thaw” that eventually included Harlan rekindling his relationship with Lanzce and Stacey, whom he fired from Douglass Properties in 2008.

That culminated with a meeting March 20, 2019, in which Lanzce and Stacey suggested changes to the will that doubled the gift to Lanzce, kept Stacey’s about the same and largely cut Harley out, according to court testimony.

Marigail Sulpizio, a paralegal who worked for longtime Harlan attorney Joe Delay, testified about notes she took at that meeting. Harlan, who was in Palm Springs, joined the meeting in Spokane by telephone.

Asked why she took so many notes, Sulpizio responded: “For 20 years, (Harlan) didn’t trust Lanzce and Stacey, and now they are in the room changing the will. I’ve got to get this down.”

She earlier testified that while Lanzce and Stacey suggested changes, Harlan gave verbal confirmation.

The siblings, who didn’t include Harley in the discussions, flew down to California the next day, on March 21, 2019, and had Harlan sign those changes, and the will was recorded on May 2, 2019. Delay, the longtime attorney for Harlan, died six days later. He was 93.

Stacey testified Monday that she currently has a lawsuit pending that challenges what she called the inappropriate gifts from Harlan and Maxine to Harley.

They include four ground leases for the Northgate Shopping Center, some 15 acres at the southeast corner of North Division Street and Lincoln Road in Spokane; the Reserve at Shelley Lake, a 256-unit apartment property at 215 S. Conklin Road in Spokane Valley; the StoneHorse at Wandermere, 252 lots of property just off North Perry Street in Mead; and the Max Storage Spokane Valley, a mini-storage business, at 214 S. Eastern Road.

As part of the deals, consummated from 2010 to 2012, Harlan and Maxine signed over ownership of the land from those developments to Harley, who then built the buildings, apartments and storage units. Harley then signed leases to his parents, so they reaped all the rents and profits from those buildings for 20 years.

At the end of those leases, Harley would own both the land and all the improvements. Harley estimated in an earlier trial that those properties would be worth about $400 million at the end of the 20-year leases.

Stacey’s lawsuit challenges the validity of those gifts.

“I’m willing to withdraw the lawsuit if the May (2019) will is upheld,” she testified. “Because my dad wanted to equal things out in his last will.”

After Stacey stepped down, attorney Randy Brandt, who worked for Douglass Properties after spending years as a court commissioner and later a Spokane County District Court judge, testified about how he took Harlan’s will and placed it in a safe deposit box at STCU.

Earlier in the trial, Brandt testified about attending a birthday party of Harlan’s friend about the same time the will was changed. He testified that Via expressed that she believed Harley was going to kill Harlan. She told Brandt to shoot Harley if he approached Harlan, Harley attorney Hassing said.

After securing the will at STCU, Brandt said his life became complicated by people “accosting him” with phone calls asking who would get what from Harlan’s estate.

One of the regular callers asking about Harlan’s will was Via.

“Jerri Via wanted an increase in her monthly stipend,” Brandt said. “She wanted to know what she was getting in the will.”

The 2018 will provided Via $5,000 a month for life. The 2019 will provided the same stipend but added that she could continue to live in either the Palm Springs or the Colbert estates, rent free, for life.

Via challenged

The last witness to be called on Monday was Via, who earlier had testified that at no time had she said bad things about Harley in an attempt to influence Harlan regarding the will.

Hassing called that claim into question.

“She testified that Harlan never had cognitive problems until June or July in 2019. But in 2016, she’s inferring that Harlan was slipping mentally,” Hassing said in court, referring to emails Via wrote.

In the same Jan. 26, 2016, email to Douglass Properties manager Murphy, Via continued to explain how Harlan asked her out to dinner after she read her ultimatum about Harley.

“I was certain that he hadn’t heard a word I said or deciphered it the way HE wanted it to be,” Via wrote. “I also told him how very concerned I was about his health and his safety.”

After she got home, Via wrote in the email about a text she received from Harlan asking what “isolation” meant.

“Oh my goodness. And he also texted saying he had seen Lanzce last week and that Lanzce told him he hadn’t changed at all in 3 years so he is justifying that he is JUST fine …” she wrote.

Two days later in 2016, Via, whose first name was also spelled Jeri in court records, wrote another email to Murphy about an impending visit by Harley’s daughter, Morgan Douglass.

“I am very concerned about Morgan going to (Palm Springs) with (Harlan) tomorrow,” Via wrote on Jan. 28, 2016. “I feel as if we are going to end up on the road deeming him incompetent with her help!

“I hate to think deviously and like (Harley), but we know he has a plan. Morgan is the MOST like (Harley) and I’m just sick about this,” she continued. “I feel as if I have to tell him to be on his GAME while she is there.”

Hassing told the judge that the email “directly impeaches her testimony from earlier in the trial” that Harlan did not show cognitive defects until the summer of 2019.

At the end of the hearing, Stacey and Lanzce both respectfully declined interview requests.

But Harley agreed to explain why he filed the suit.

“I loved my parents. I miss my mom and dad immensely,” Harley said. “I was mentored, and all of us were mentored, with everything to do with business.”

Harlan and Maxine wanted their legacy to continue so that their grandchildren could see what they built, and Harley said he spent much of two decades working to fulfill that goal.

“They were very proud of what they accomplished coming from nothing,” Harley said. “It’s just getting all erased from the earth. That’s the intent, I think.”