Desert Sun, 22 April 1976 — Court Battle Opens Over Hughes Estate [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Court Battle Opens Over Hughes Estate

LOS ANGELES (UPI) - A request to remove Howard Hughes’ first cousin as administrator of his California properties and put the billionaire’s estate under the control of a county official was filed in Superior Court Wednesday. Superior Court Judge David Eagleson set next Tuesday to hear arguments on County Administrator Bruce Altman’s petition to be named special administrator and scheduled a hearing May 4 on a petition to be named general administrator. A special administrator assumes control of an estate to make immediately needed decisions. A general administrator has greater powers, acting much like an executor, and oversees the affairs of the estate until the completion of the Probate Court process, Hughes’ cousin, Richard Gano of Anaheim, does not meet legal qualifications to be administrator of the estate, Altman

said in his petition. In the absence of both a will and any legally qualified relative, the law requires that administration of Hughes’ California holdings go to Altman’s office, he said. The county Board of Supervisors ordered Altman and the county counsel Tuesday to take steps immediately to bring the Hughes’ estate under county supervision on the grounds that Hughes was a Los Angeles resident, although he left the county years ago for hideouts in Las Vegas, Vancouver, the Bahamas, Acapulco and elsewhere. Gano was nominated to supervise Hughes’ California interests by his mother, Annette Gano Lummis of Houston, Tex., Hughes’ aunt and closest surviving relative. Mrs. Lummis was named temporary administrator of Hughes’ Texas properties and nominated a Las Vegas bank to assume control of his Nevada interests.

WILL EXISTED Mrs. Eleanor Rohrbeck, 61, of Palm Springs, insists that Howard Hughes signed a legal will in 1949. She served as one of the billionaire s legal secretaries and typed a codicil to the will in 1951, and then handed if to a high Hughes official. When asked where she thought the will might be, she answered, "That’s the $2 billion question." (Desert Sun Photo by Dave Smith)