Estate of Denial:  “F. Scott Fitzgerald observed that the rich are different, but that does not mean an heiress can adopt her 65-year-old ex-husband to increase her family’s claim to a billion dollar inheritance.

Delaware’s Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the unconventional adoption did not entitle the man to inherit a share of the Gore-Tex waterproof fabric fortune.

Heirs to the founders of W.L. Gore & Associates Inc of Newark, Delaware, have fought for years over how to divide their stake in the privately held company, which has $3 billion in annual revenue.

Their battle landed in court over the question of how the late Wilbert L. Gore, who founded the company in his basement in 1958, and his late wife, Vieve, intended to divide their fortune.

At the center of the dispute was the adoption nearly a decade ago by Susan Gore, one of Wilbert’s five children, of her ex-husband, Jan Otto.”