Brewster's Millions · 5:34pm Jun 9th, 2017
I don't know if anyone remembers the Brewster's Millions film, but it's about a guy called Monty Brewster who inherits $300 million from a relative but has to spend $30 million in 30 days to be able to get it. The rules are that he cannot give it away to charity, he cannot have any assets left after the 30 days are up, and most importantly, he cannot tell anyone about the deal. The problem is that the owners of a law firm involved in the deal are trying to get most of the money for themselves.
Spoilers for the old 1985 film beyond.
The law firm involved is going to get the $300 million if Monty fails his task for the purpose of giving the money to different charities and therefore the two owners are also not allowed to tell anyone about the deal as they are part of the group of four that includes Monty and the estate lawyer of the deceased relative. But they tell one of the employees, Warren, in their company to spy on Brewster and become his accounts manager so that he can make sure Monty has assets left at the end of the month. This means they've broken the deal. At the end of the film minutes before the end of the 30 days are up Warren gives Monty $20000 that he had withheld so that the firm will get all the money. Monty, defeated, then goes to sign away all his money, but Warren tells Monty's accountant that he had withheld the money and revealed the terms of the will. This causes her to rush in and take the $20000 from Monty so he can get the $300 million. So in essence, Monty gets his $300 million and the company gets nothing and the estate lawyer promises to have the two law firm owners investigated.
If he'd been clever, he could have gotten probably upwards of $400 million instead. This is how.
Having found out the company had cheated the deal to get the money for themselves he could have waited for them to get the $300 million and then just sued them. First for the $300 million he was supposed to inherit. Then extra for the fact they had the intention to break their end of the deal by keeping all the money and not giving any to charity and also because they revealed the terms of the deal to someone not included in the meeting. He could also sue for the fact they sent someone to spy on him and finally because they caused emotional distress by taking away his owed money with underhand tactics. This would net him a lot more and wouldn't cost that much for a lawyer. The only downside to that is he'd be broke for a couple months while the court case is settled.