Dolly Parton’s nephew Bryan Seaver is asking for the lawsuit brought against him and his security company by Parton’s estate to be thrown out.
Seaver, who was also the head of his late aunt’s security team, filed an 18-page response Monday to a complaint from She’s Alive LLC, the trust that manages Parton’s assets. She’s Alive LLC sued Seaver and his company, Squadron Augmented Protection Services, LLC, on Sept. 22, one month after Parton’s death, alleging he had made threats and was demanding money.
Seaver said in his response to a Tennessee judge on Monday that he never created a “culture of fear” as the suit had alleged, denying the premise of the lawsuit and saying the messages the suit calls “threats” were not threats.
Seaver also denied that he had “engaged in outrageous or oppressive conduct” as alleged in the complaint, and said some of the “threats” outlined in the original suit had been met with reactions like “HaHa” from Danny Nozell, an executor on the trust and Parton’s longtime manager.
“Defendants deny that any of these statements was a threat, deny that they were ‘calculated’ to threaten anyone, [and] deny that they had or were intended to have a ‘chilling effect’ on any person…,” the response reads in part.
The response comes one month after She’s Alive filed a court document on Oct. 5 alleging that Seaver’s residence had a “no-trespassing sign in the front yard and barbed wire draped across the handrails leading to the front door” in an alleged attempt to evade being served with the lawsuit.
Reached for comment at the time, Seaver told ABC News a restraining order filed against him by Parton’s estate prevented him from speaking publicly about the case.
Parton’s estate was granted the temporary restraining order against Seaver and his security company in September, after a judge ruled that they had shown a “present and continuing disruption and threat” to She’s Alive.
Parton died in August after what her family described as a “brief battle with cancer.” Seaver was the one who announced his aunt’s death in a video statement shared on social media at the time.
Parton amassed a multimillion-dollar estate during her lifetime, stemming from her entrepreneurial endeavors, which included her extensive music catalog and her Dollywood amusement park. She and her late husband, Carl Dean, who died last year, had no children.
The next hearing in the ongoing case between She’s Alive and Seaver is scheduled for Nov. 10.
ABC News has reached out to Seaver for comment.
Parton’s estate declined to comment when reached by ABC News.
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