Fifteen years after the death of entertainer James Brown, his family has finally reached a settlement ending a battle over the late singer‘s estate, an attorney involved in the mediation said Friday, according to US media reports.

David Black, an attorney representing Brown’s estate, confirmed that the agreement was reached July 9, according to an Associated Press report.

However, the details of the settlement have still not been disclosed.

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The “A Man’s World”-singer died on Christmas Day 2006 at the age of 73 and since then legal wrangling has unravelled over Brown’s estate. 

Brown was renowned for iconic musical works, flashy performances and dynamic stage presence. However, he struggled with years of drug problems and financial mismanagement, which caused his estate to dwindle.

Following his death, his former partner Tomi Rae Hynie emerged who claimed to be Brown’s wife. She alleged that she was locked out of his 60-acre (24-hectare) estate while photographers captured her sobbing and shaking its iron gates, begging to be let in.

More than a dozen lawsuits were filed over the years by people trying to lay claim to the singer’s assets, which courts have estimated to be worth anything from $5 million to more than $100 million.

The battle over Brown’s inheritance even erupted into a debate about what to do with his body. Brown’s body, still inside a gilded coffin, was in cold storage in a funeral parlour for more than two months as family members argued over the remains.

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Brown was eventually buried in Beech Island, South Carolina, at the home of one of his daughters. The family wanted to turn the home into a shrine for Brown similar to Elvis Presley’s Graceland, but that idea never got off the ground.

The South Carolina Supreme Court concluded last year that because Hynie was not legally married to Brown, she did not have a claim to his multimillion-dollar fortune.

The Supreme Court also directed a circuit court to “promptly proceed with the probate of Brown’s estate in conformity with his estate plan,” which included the formation of a trust to utilise his music earnings to cover educational expenditures for youngsters in South Carolina and Georgia.