Motsey Settles

What is better than What is better than owing $64 million? Well, owing only $20 million--as, now, does Lammot du Pont ("Motsey") Copeland Jr., a great-great-great -grandson of the founder of the Du Pont dynasty. Climaxing one of history's largest personal bankruptcy actions, his overworked platoon of Wilmington lawyers settled with a creditors' committee, whittling down his debt from a series of misbegotten enterprises.

Motsey, 41, agreed to use income from his trust funds (estimated at more than $400,000 a year) to help pay creditors between 10-c- and 20-c- on the dollar during the next ten years. The largest undisputed debt, owed to the Republic National Bank of Dallas, is $1.7 million, pared from $4.3 million. The same haggling that reduced Copeland's liabilities also reduced his assets, apart from trusts, to less than $2 million, from about $26 million. He was forced in the agreement, for example, to put his $500,000 Wilmington mansion up for sale. And settlement could well have been prolonged even further had not the Copeland family--notably Lammot Sr., former chairman of Du Pont--agreed to withdraw some $3.6 million in family claims.

Individual creditors and a federal bankruptcy court must still approve the bankruptcy court must still approve the plan. Indeed, there remains a disputed claim of $3.8 million arising from the bankruptcy of Transogram Co., a toy company that Motsey once headed. But it did seem the worst was over. Copeland will now have more time for his latest venture, the Comedy Center, Inc. It sells jokes to speechmakers and newspapers. Sample: "Confucius say: Naked student who runs into naked coed having lucky streak." The talent behind the firm is Bob Orben, who is also a gagwriter for Vice President Gerald Ford.

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