Haft vs. Haft : Divorce: Herbert and Gloria Haft fling accusations at each other in their bids for control of Crown Books and Trak Auto.

By ROBERT A. ROSENBLATT

Aug. 21, 1993 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

WASHINGTON — The Haft family feud spilled into divorce court Friday, with lawyers for Herbert and Gloria Haft volleying accusations and countercharges about the couple who created the vast retailing empire that includes Crown Books and Trak Auto.

Herbert says his wife filed for divorce as just another tactic in her fight to force Herbert to give control of the business to their oldest son, Robert.

Gloria, who filed for separation last week after 45 years of marriage, accuses her husband of abuse and infidelities and is asking for a court order to prevent her husband from moving control of business assets outside the marriage.

Herbert and Gloria sat 15 feet away from each other in Family Court here, staring forward, stony-faced, while lawyers gave a packed courtroom a glimpse of the vast fortunes and bitterness that encompass the Haft clan.

The family was shattered earlier this year when Herbert fired Robert, his heir apparent, and kicked Gloria off the boards of the companies. She backed Robert in his demand to speed up the timetable for him to become head of the Dart Group Corp. holding company, which controls a majority of the shares in Trak Auto and Crown Books.

During a recess Friday, Herbert denounced Robert as a lousy businessman. Robert created the concept of deeply discounted best-selling books to draw customers into Crown stores, “but in the last several years, he did not pay attention,” Herbert said.

Robert “let Crown fall behind . . . and competitors ate his lunch,” Herbert said.

The family patriarch said his wife’s lawsuit “is just a case of a divorce action to try to accomplish a business aim that doesn’t make sense”: giving Robert a chance to rule the corporate kingdom.

In apparent retaliation for the divorce filing, Herbert has transferred his 57% share in Dart Group to his younger son Ronald, his only ally in the family feud. But Herbert kept the voting rights, assuring that he continues to dominate Dart and, through it, Crown and Trak Auto.

Marna Tucker, a lawyer for Gloria Haft, told Judge Harriett Taylor that the Dart Group shares are a key asset whose value was developed during the marriage.

Gloria Haft “is an active, intelligent businesswoman,” Tucker said, and suggested that the Haft family corporate enterprises could be compared to children. “She is seeking custody of some of the businesses, and visitation won’t be enough,” Tucker said.

Herbert Haft wants to treat her “more like a shareholder to the marriage than the equal partner she has been for 45 years,” Tucker said. She denounced the “stench” of the deals between Herbert and Ronald “to place assets outside the marriage.”

Gloria will not be satisfied by an offer of a cash settlement to end the marriage, Tucker said. “She will not be content to merely accept money,” she said.

Attorneys for Herbert counterattacked with arguments that Gloria did not exercise administrative or managerial authority in the businesses and that she was attempting a corporate coup against her husband.

Gloria’s goal is “to embarrass Mr. Haft, to humiliate Mr. Haft, to ruin him publicly if he does not relinquish control of the public companies to her favorite son, Robert,” said Sanford Ain, a lawyer for Herbert.

Herbert, 72, told reporters that the family dispute is not interfering with business. A new venture, a discount wine and beer store called Total Beverage, is profitable after less than a year of operation, Haft noted. He announced that he will open a major discount food and general merchandise store within 90 days. “It will have everything Price Club has,” he said.

“I just had my annual physical and, knock on wood, I’m fine,” Herbert said, signifying he has no intention of relinquishing the leadership of the business he and Gloria built from a single drugstore in Washington, where he was the pharmacist and she worked as a cosmetologist.