Graceland is not going to be offered at public sale, at the least for now.
On Wednesday, a Tennessee decide deferred ruling on an obvious try to promote Graceland, Elvis Presley’s former residence in Memphis, however stored a brief injunction in place that might forestall the property from going to public sale imminently.
The weird case got here into extensive public view this week when a lawsuit surfaced that had been filed by Mr. Presley’s granddaughter, the actress Riley Keough. In it, Ms. Keough sued to forestall what her attorneys described as a fraudulent effort to public sale the house by an organization claiming that Lisa Marie Presley — Ms. Keough’s mom and Mr. Presley’s daughter — had borrowed $3.8 million and put Graceland up as collateral earlier than she died in 2023.
At Wednesday’s listening to at Chancery Courtroom in Shelby County, Tenn., the decide, Chancellor JoeDae L. Jenkins, stated he wanted to proceed the case, partly as a result of nobody confirmed up in particular person to signify the corporate searching for to promote Graceland and partly as a result of he stated attorneys for Ms. Keough wanted to current extra proof.
“Graceland is part of this group, properly cherished by this group and certainly world wide,” Chancellor Jenkins stated in the course of the listening to, which lasted roughly 10 minutes. Delaying the trial, he reasoned, would permit for “sufficient discovery” to happen.
The defendants included an organization, Naussany Investments & Personal Lending LLC, which had scheduled a sale of Graceland for Thursday, in response to courtroom papers. The courtroom stated it had acquired a submitting on Wednesday morning from a person named Gregory Naussany who had requested the courtroom to proceed the case.
It was not clear when the subsequent listening to would happen.
Legal professionals for Ms. Keough had argued that the corporate seemed to be a “false entity.” In addition they claimed that the corporate had introduced pretend paperwork purporting to point out that Ms. Presley had borrowed the cash and put Graceland up as collateral.
A number of makes an attempt to succeed in Naussany Investments by way of the e-mail addresses and telephone numbers listed for the corporate within the courtroom paperwork haven’t been profitable.
After the listening to, Jeff Germany, a lawyer for Ms. Keough, stated he had not had “any direct contact” with the defendants within the case. He declined to touch upon whether or not attorneys for the property had requested legislation enforcement to research potential fraud.
Graceland, a well-liked vacationer attraction, is a serious supply of earnings for Elvis Presley Enterprises and the household belief, which Ms. Keough controls.
In 2005, going through mounting debt, Ms. Presley offered 85 p.c of Elvis Presley Enterprises, which conducts enterprise and manages and operates belongings like Graceland. The household, by way of its belief, retains 15 p.c of Elvis Presley Enterprises and owns the principle Graceland home, appraised at $5.6 million in 2021.
In an announcement issued on Wednesday after the courtroom proceedings, Graceland reiterated that there was “no validity to the claims” made by Naussany Investments and that “there can be no foreclosures.”
“Graceland will proceed to function because it has for the previous 42 years,” the assertion stated, “making certain that Elvis followers from world wide can proceed to have a best-in-class expertise when visiting his iconic residence.”
