Legal battle decides fate of record trophy
MuleyMadness
5/3/04 4:06pm
Bob Scammell
Going. . . going. . . gone!
That is where what many hunters say is North America's finest big game trophy could be headed as a result of a recent Alberta Court of Queen's Bench decision handed down in Edmonton on March 19.
The Broder Buck, since 1960, when it was first scored and entered in the Boone and Crockett Club's Records of North American Big Game, has reigned as the world record non-typical mule deer, scoring 355 2/8's inches of antler; a full 16 inches more than the No. 2 non-typical, which was taken around 1890 in the Okanagan region in British Columbia.
Had its owner, Ed Broder, seen fit to enter his trophy as soon as eligible after he shot it near Chip Lake in 1926, it would have been No. 1 since 1927.
In its latest edition of the book, the 11th edition of 1999, Boone and Crockett calls the Broder buck "perhaps one of the most outstanding trophies ever recorded."
Past columns have noted that the Broder Buck seemed to be missing, then a whole column dealt with a court case among the descendants of Ed Broder for, among other things, the return to the estate of the mount of the amazing buck.
Ed Broder died intestate (without leaving a will) in December 1998.
On March 19, Mme. Justice Myra Bielby handed down her decision settling the long, bitter lawsuit over ownership of the mount of the buck taken in 1926 near Chip Lake, Alberta by Ed Broder, father and grandfather of the litigants.
Justice Bielby decided the head belonged to the Broder estate, rather than the eldest son, Don Broder, who had removed the head from the family home in 1973 and retained it, making various efforts at publicizing it, and marketing photos, tee shirts and replicas of it.
Within a month of the trial an alleged holograph will (must be all in the handwriting of, and be signed by, the testator) was produced, stating, "I give all my personal belongings to my son Don Broder to divide up as he sees fit. Ed Broder."
The evidence was that Ed Broder had at most a grade 2 education and a very limited ability to write. Nobody in the family, including Don Broder, was willing to swear the alleged will was in the handwriting of the deceased.
A handwriting expert was 80 per cent certain that the signature was not that of Ed Broder.
Justice Bielby, not impressed with the sudden appearance of an alleged will in a lawsuit that had been going on for six years, rejected the purported will: "all the evidence supports the conclusion that it is highly likely that the document was not created by, or at the direction of Ed Broder."
The words of Justice Bielby that chill this prideful Alberta mule deer hunter are these:
"I order that the Personal Representatives of the Estate of Ed Broder are to return for directions in relation to the mode of sale of the trophy within 30 days of receipt of the judgment. . .
Steps are to be taken to sell the trophy forthwith, which may include sale by local auction, unless a better proposal is advanced by any party. . . "
This superb big game trophy will probably depart Alberta, where it was taken and kept for 78 years, and go onto the wall or into the vault of some rich, foreign born collector.
The curious will at last learn what a priceless trophy like this will bring on the open market.
But Ed Broder, a man of very modest means, never considered selling his most cherished and valuable possession during his lifetime, relatives have told me, but said it should be sold and the proceeds divided among the family after he was gone.
Poignant details emerge from the judgment:
"Aside from the trophy which had hung on the wall of the family home since it had been built in the 1940's, his estate primarily consisted of an old Model T car, chaps and a saddle, some firearms and miscellaneous small personal effects."
Hunters who dote on the story of the hunt for, and the taking of, the great buck will be wondering whether the Model T is the very one that took Ed Broder and hunting companion Philip Mohr most of the way in from Edmonton to their hunting camp back in 1926 and whether "some firearms" includes the 32 Winchester Special with which Broder shot the buck at 200 yards after tracking it for hours in a foot of soft snow in those boreal jungles in and around Chip Lake.
Boone and Crockett quotes Ed Broder, probably from around 1960 when the head was officially scored: "I started hunting in the year 1909 and have never missed a season since; I am now 72 and in fair health and who can tell, I may yet beat my old 1926 record!"
He did not live long enough to do that; it is doubtful anyone ever will. But it is a mercy he also did not live long enough to witness the family dispute over his trophy, plus simple justice that nobody can ever sell out the real trophy: his own story of his wonderful 1926 hunt.
Bob Scammell is a Red Deer lawyer and an award-winning outdoors freelance writer.
Going. . . going. . . gone!
That is where what many hunters say is North America's finest big game trophy could be headed as a result of a recent Alberta Court of Queen's Bench decision handed down in Edmonton on March 19.
The Broder Buck, since 1960, when it was first scored and entered in the Boone and Crockett Club's Records of North American Big Game, has reigned as the world record non-typical mule deer, scoring 355 2/8's inches of antler; a full 16 inches more than the No. 2 non-typical, which was taken around 1890 in the Okanagan region in British Columbia.
Had its owner, Ed Broder, seen fit to enter his trophy as soon as eligible after he shot it near Chip Lake in 1926, it would have been No. 1 since 1927.
In its latest edition of the book, the 11th edition of 1999, Boone and Crockett calls the Broder buck "perhaps one of the most outstanding trophies ever recorded."
Past columns have noted that the Broder Buck seemed to be missing, then a whole column dealt with a court case among the descendants of Ed Broder for, among other things, the return to the estate of the mount of the amazing buck.
Ed Broder died intestate (without leaving a will) in December 1998.
On March 19, Mme. Justice Myra Bielby handed down her decision settling the long, bitter lawsuit over ownership of the mount of the buck taken in 1926 near Chip Lake, Alberta by Ed Broder, father and grandfather of the litigants.
Justice Bielby decided the head belonged to the Broder estate, rather than the eldest son, Don Broder, who had removed the head from the family home in 1973 and retained it, making various efforts at publicizing it, and marketing photos, tee shirts and replicas of it.
Within a month of the trial an alleged holograph will (must be all in the handwriting of, and be signed by, the testator) was produced, stating, "I give all my personal belongings to my son Don Broder to divide up as he sees fit. Ed Broder."
The evidence was that Ed Broder had at most a grade 2 education and a very limited ability to write. Nobody in the family, including Don Broder, was willing to swear the alleged will was in the handwriting of the deceased.
A handwriting expert was 80 per cent certain that the signature was not that of Ed Broder.
Justice Bielby, not impressed with the sudden appearance of an alleged will in a lawsuit that had been going on for six years, rejected the purported will: "all the evidence supports the conclusion that it is highly likely that the document was not created by, or at the direction of Ed Broder."
The words of Justice Bielby that chill this prideful Alberta mule deer hunter are these:
"I order that the Personal Representatives of the Estate of Ed Broder are to return for directions in relation to the mode of sale of the trophy within 30 days of receipt of the judgment. . .
Steps are to be taken to sell the trophy forthwith, which may include sale by local auction, unless a better proposal is advanced by any party. . . "
This superb big game trophy will probably depart Alberta, where it was taken and kept for 78 years, and go onto the wall or into the vault of some rich, foreign born collector.
The curious will at last learn what a priceless trophy like this will bring on the open market.
But Ed Broder, a man of very modest means, never considered selling his most cherished and valuable possession during his lifetime, relatives have told me, but said it should be sold and the proceeds divided among the family after he was gone.
Poignant details emerge from the judgment:
"Aside from the trophy which had hung on the wall of the family home since it had been built in the 1940's, his estate primarily consisted of an old Model T car, chaps and a saddle, some firearms and miscellaneous small personal effects."
Hunters who dote on the story of the hunt for, and the taking of, the great buck will be wondering whether the Model T is the very one that took Ed Broder and hunting companion Philip Mohr most of the way in from Edmonton to their hunting camp back in 1926 and whether "some firearms" includes the 32 Winchester Special with which Broder shot the buck at 200 yards after tracking it for hours in a foot of soft snow in those boreal jungles in and around Chip Lake.
Boone and Crockett quotes Ed Broder, probably from around 1960 when the head was officially scored: "I started hunting in the year 1909 and have never missed a season since; I am now 72 and in fair health and who can tell, I may yet beat my old 1926 record!"
He did not live long enough to do that; it is doubtful anyone ever will. But it is a mercy he also did not live long enough to witness the family dispute over his trophy, plus simple justice that nobody can ever sell out the real trophy: his own story of his wonderful 1926 hunt.
Bob Scammell is a Red Deer lawyer and an award-winning outdoors freelance writer.
6,439
Sounds like a mess, sad really. :?
If I remember the story behind this buck, the mount was lost once before for quite some time was it not (The man asked to mount it ended up closing shop and moving without letting the Senior Broder know)?
It will be interesting to find out, You see, Don has aquired some great trophies from BC, I know of one non-typical from the Kootney region that has a 220 net typical frame!