Los Angeles daily herald., 1890-02-18
EATING Up AN ESTATE.
LaWyers' Fees That Make 4. n
Hole I'm Fumds

AaWyers' Eees That Make n n,
Hole I'm Funds.
An old man named D. Newman farmed
near the Monte for years, and died
there some time ago. Before his death
he adopted boy named George Maldo.
nado as his heir. The boys mother 90,
letters OF administration on the estate
and employed Damron & Shaw to attend
to her business as they had done fol-
Newman before. Then came a bunch Of
claimants for the property, relations Of
Newman. There were half dozen suits
brought about it. At the death of New.
man his estate was valued at 500 600
Mrs. Maldonado signed contract with
Damron & Shaw to pay them SIS 5,Oeo to
conduct all the suits for her. Later Mrs.
Maldonado married man at Pasadena
named Hentig.
All went we'll with the attorneys for
Mrs. Hentig until Judge Shaw went on
the bench, and thereby became disquali-
fed to attend to the case, and Damron
went to the Legislature, and then East
and could not attend to it. In the alb.
sence of Damron Mrs. Hentig employed
O'Melveney & Henning to fight one or
two of her cases, and when Damron re-.
turned he too entered the cases as coun-
sal. Here came rupture, for last week
O'Melveney & Henning brought an action
to have Mrs. Hentig renewed as guar
dian of the estate of George Maldonado,
on the ground that she is now married
and thereby disqualified to act, and on
the further ground that she is squander.
ing the estate. There are number of
affidavits fled with the application,
going to establish the charge of
mismanaging the estate. The princi-
pal one sets forth that ]. M. Damron
is getting away with the greater part OF
the proceeds of all transactions in con.
nection with the estate. 1t sets forth
thst he has been paid $500, and that
he claims So 400 and 81, 500 more, or a
total of $S 400. 1t is asserted in the pro-
ceedings that the services of Damron are
rated at an exorbitant figure, and that
81 900 would be amply sufficient pay for
all he has done.
A HERALD reporter saw MIR. Damron,
who stated that he had not received from
the estate in all to exceed 81 500, and
that he had agreed with Mrs. Hentig to
let her off for 1000 in all, instead of
SIS, 900, due him under the original coll
tract. Mr.. Damron told long story
of all his services as attorney
in many cases for the estate,
and seemed to think he had earned
much more than he had received. One
csee he had to take through the Supreme
Court.
In the course of this conversation it
appeared that the ranch at the Monte
had been lost to the boy in litigation, a
relative of old Newman winning it be-
fore the courts. The Public Admins
traitor, j. II. Book paid the estate 6,474,
the sale of piece of land at Park Station
brought $40, 900, and the sale of piece
at Pasadena recently brought $4 900. In
all the estate has received about $40, 900,
and when Mr.. Damron makes his show
ing before the court next Thursday it ia
extremely probable that there will not
be enough left to pay the fee of O'Mel-
veney & aenning, which Mr.. .Danron says
is set by these gentlemen at 1000. All
the real property there is now left the
boy is about twenty acres of land near
Park Station, and that is in litigation.