An ink-stained legal drama has engulfed the family behind BIC pens, who are fighting over at least $30 million worth of the $2.7 billion company’s shares, court records show.
After years of court battles, the daughter-in-law of founder Marcel Bich, who perfected the ballpoint pen and launched French company Société Bic in 1945, has allegedly threatened to sue her three sons again over the family fortune.
The trio, Gonzalve, Charles and Guillaume Bich, are begging a Manhattan judge to stop Veronique Bich, who married and divorced Marcel’s son Bruno, according to legal papers.
Bruno Bich died in 2021.
“Having settled prior litigation with Ms. Bich last year, the [brothers] did not expect to find themselves back in this Court. They have no interest in litigating,” they said in a new Manhattan Supreme Court filing.
“However, given Ms. Bich’s strong-arm tactics and repeated threats to sue them personally — yet again — if they do not surrender to her unjust demands, they have no choice but to again seek this Court’s protection.”
The current dispute centers on a separate company named Grenelle, which is owned by Veronique, Bruno’s estate, and their children and has assets including a Paris apartment and 400,000 shares of Société Bic S.A.
The Paris home is on Rue de Grenelle, where apartments can run from $1 million to $2 million or more in value.
Despite an agreement giving Veronique Bich a “lifetime, exclusive, rent-free use” of the Paris pad, she has fought in court for years in a bid to attempt a “hostile takeover” of Grenelle — and just last month threatened to sue her kids if they didn’t agree to her latest demands, the sons claimed.
“Given Ms. Bich’s prior, overzealous litigation campaigns against them and Grenelle, the [brothers] took Ms. Bich’s threat to sue them . . . seriously,” they wrote in legal papers.
A lawyer for Veronique Bich did not return a message seeking comment.
The post BIC pens heirs in $30M ink-stained ordeal to fend off alleged legal threat from their mother appeared first on New York Post.
