The children of a Tuckers Town resident worth an estimated $100 million who was shot in the parking lot of his Massachusetts company on Friday, tangled in US courts over the ownership of his Bermuda home.

John. J. Donovan Sr., 63, a former electrical engineering and management professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been recovering at his Hamilton, Massachusetts home since Sunday, the American media said yesterday.

Mr. Donovan was a part-time resident of Bermuda and owned Winsor House, near Ross Perot?s home in Tucker?s Town and when not on the Island, rented it out to MIT.

But despite his brilliant business career, Mr. Donovan?s private life was marred with legal battles with his five children, including 17 lawsuits in 2004 alone over his properties in Bermuda, Vermont and Boston, the American press said.

At one point, his children tried to get him banished from an exclusive polo, golf and fox-hunting club, it said, but the matter was settled out of court in a multimillion-dollar settlement.

Bryan Mewett, general manager of the Mid-Ocean Club in Tucker?s Town said: ?He was a member here. When he was on the Island I certainly saw him and when his family were down, I certainly saw them too.?

Mr. Mewett said Mr. Donovan was a very nice but private gentleman.

In 2002, one of Mr. Donovan?s daughters, who was not identified, alleged in a court affidavit that Donovan sexually abused her as a child, however, Mr. Donovan responded in his own affidavit that the allegation was absolutely false.

Mr. Donovan told the court his children had tried to blackmail him and threatened to use the sex allegations to force him from his home.

In June 2004, the family settled out of court agreement with Mr. Donovan promising to pay his five children $6 million in cash.

On Friday, four shots were fired at Mr. Donovan outside Cambridge Executive Enterprises ? three bullets hit him and a fourth deflected off his belt buckle.

Donovan described the shooter only as a white male, and no one had been apprehended yesterday.

Police said the shooting did not appear to be random and Police investigated a possible attempted break-in at Donovan?s home in Boston suburb Hamilton about 30 minutes before he was shot.

In 2003, Donovan reported someone fired a rifle into his home and hit a couch.

?He?s emotionally drained,? Mr. Donovan?s spokesman George K. Regan Jr. told the American press on Monday. ?He is very thankful he is alive.?