The San Francisco call., 1904-11-03
DOLBEER CASE
GOES TO TRIAL
Coffey Refuses to Postpone
1t Again and Impaneling
of the Jury Is Begun
STACK OF DISPOSITIONS
Miss Warren, From Whom It
Is Sought to Wrest the
Fortune, Not in Court

Judge Coffey declared an end to post
ponements and the Dolbeer will con-
test went to trial yesterday. The long
delayed battle over the estate of s1O0o,-
600, the bulk of which Bertha Dolbeer
bequeathed to Eta M. Warren, her
lifelong companion, was at last begun
under auspices that indicate long
and bitter fight.
The legal array promises much of
vigor and strength of combat. For
Adolph Schander, the uncle who seeks
to set aside the will on the ground that
the decedent was of unSound mind
when she executed the testament, there
appeared Hiram and Albert NJ. john
recent acquisition. The beneficiaries
Miss Dolbeer named are represented by
f. S. Pillsbury, Garret ". McEnerney
and w. +. Williamson.
There was nothing more than exam
ination of talesmen yesterday, but
even in these exciting proceedings
there were number of sharp remarks
and biting retorts between the lawyers.
Nine talesmen We're examined before
evening, but there will be no accepting
of jurors until the whole panel shall
have been examined. 1t is possible that
the jury will be completed late this aft
ernoon.
MISS WARREN, from WQOIQ dIIeI1lpt Is
being made to wreSt a bequeSt that
amounts to about $1,000, was not in
court yesterday. At no stage of the case
has she yet set foot in a courtroom, but
her attorneys said that she would ap-
pear as soon as the introduction of tes-
timony should begin.
Schander, on the other hand, was
present with his entire family, wife,
daughter and son. The audience was
devoid of representatives of society, In
which the case is attracting much in
terest largely because so many of it's
fair members have been subpenaed to
testify as to the mental condition Of
Miss Dolbeer at the time she made her
will Mrs. William c. Mugan, wife of
one of the executors, did take seat be-
side her husband for few minutes,
but soon took her departure.
The trial is expected to be long drawn
out; for there are stacks of dispositions
to read, the most of them taken in New
York, wherein the deponents tell OF
Miss Dolbeer's conduct during the days
preceding her fatal fall from a sew
enth-1oor window of the Waidorf-As-
toria Hotel. There are still more
dispositions to come from the East, and
it was on this ground that the contest
ants attorneys sought continuance
Attorney Hiram Johnson told the
talesmen that the question they would
be called on to decide was whether or
not Miss Dolbeer was of sound and dis
posing mind when she made her will in
April last, four months previous to her
death. The questions he propounded
were of the usual order.
A question that Attorney Pillsbury
laid much stress on was whether the
talesmen knew Louis Metzger, who is
in the lottery business, or any other
person who was giving financial sup
port of the contestant in promoting
this suit
I'VE do not know Metzger," declared
Attorney. Hiram Johnson
Pillsbury also made it appear that
Wilson & Wilson, attorneys for Mrs.
j. l.. Moody, who was an aunt of Miss
Dolbeer. are giving aid to the contest
ant. But Johnson also denied this. The
report that Mrs. Moody is interesting
herself In the contest, for the reason
that she would get share of the estate
if the will is upset, is not verified by
Johnson.
The talesmen examined yesterday
were the following: K. Lundstrom.
John F. C. Plageman, John Higgins, S.
Peterson, Charles A. Slack, Edwin w.
Briggs, Christopher Branagan, William
HenlSe and Michael Shannon.