Widow of NFL icon Charlie Sanders sacked with lawsuit

The ex-wife of NFL Hall of Famer Charlie Sanders has landed in federal court, where a new lawsuit raises questions about whether she legitimately remarried the former Detroit Lions star in his hospital room days before his death, and whether she's entitled to $1.1 million of his pension benefits.

Sanders, 68, died of cancer July 2 at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. Six days before his death, court records show, he remarried his ex-wife.

The nuptials raised suspicion, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by the NFL Club Employees Pension Plan, which cites an e-mail it received from an attorney who claims Sanders had other plans for his pension money: It was supposed to go into a trust.

"There is a significant question as to whether the marriage is valid," the e-mail stated, referring to the nuptials of Charlie and Georgianna Sanders, who had divorced years before and have eight children together.

A follow-up letter to the NFL pension plan explained: "It is the position of the trustee that even if some type of 'marriage ceremony' took place prior to Mr. Sanders' death, he was totally incapable of giving a valid and legally binding consent to any such marriage."

The letter, dated Sept. 11, also threatened "to initiate appropriate legal proceedings," the lawsuit said.

At issue is who should get Sanders' pension money: his widow, or the trust he set up in 2008. The NFL pension plan is asking the court to decide. A similar lawsuit was filed in September by Sanders' life insurance company, Guardian Life, which wants the court to decide who is entitled to Sanders' $321,000 policy: his widow, or the trust.

Attorney Michelle Czapski, who is representing the insurance company, declined to comment. Georgianna Sanders of Rochester Hills could not be reached for comment.

According to court records, Sanders set up the Charles Sanders Revocable Trust in 2008 and designated the trust as the sole beneficiary of his pension plan. At the time, he was not married, court records show. Farmington Hills attorney David Levine was designated as the trustee, the lawsuit states.

According to the lawsuit, Levine believes the football star's pension should go to the trust. But when he requested the pension money after Sanders' death, the NFL delivered some shocking news: The trust was entitled to only $627,000 of Sanders' pension money. His wife was getting the rest.

Red flags went up for Levine, who sent the NFL the e-mail questioning the validity of the marriage and then hired a lawyer, records show.

It was Levine's lawyer, Detroit attorney Abraham Singer, who then sent the NFL the follow-up letter explaining that Sanders was "totally incapable of" consenting to marriage just days before he died. Therefore, he argued in the letter, "this 'marriage cannot be a legal basis' " for not paying the trust the full $1.1 million of Sanders' pension money.

Singer declined to comment. Levine was not available for comment.

Attorney Hans Massaquoi, who is representing the NFL Club Employees Pension Plan, did not return calls for comment.

Sanders, a Greensboro, N.C., native, is most remembered for his Hall of Fame-playing career that spanned 10 seasons (1968-77), all in Detroit.

For a decade, he was one of the best tight ends in the NFL. His playing career ended in 1977, a year after he suffered a serious knee injury. But he stayed a part of the Lions organization — first as a broadcaster, then an assistant coach and most recently — since 1998 — as a member of the personnel department. A year ago, doctors found a malignant tumor behind Sanders' right knee while he was being prepped for knee replacement surgery.