Estate of Pascoe

242 Cal.App.2d 85 (1966) 51 Cal. Rptr. 91 Estate of MARY E. PASCOE, Deceased.

BALDO M. KRISTOVICH, as Public Administrator, etc., Petitioner and Respondent,

v.

LYNNE VERNON, Objector and Appellant.

Docket No. 29790. Court of Appeals of California, Second District, Division Four.

May 9, 1966. [86] Rodd Kelsey for Objector and Appellant.

Harold W. Kennedy, County Counsel, Henry W. Gardett, Gerald F. Crump and Michael H. Dougherty, Deputy County Counsel, for Petitioner and Respondent.

KINGSLEY, J.

This is an appeal from an order revoking letters of administration previously issued to Lynne Vernon and directing that letters issue to the Los Angeles County Public Administrator.

Mary E. Pascoe, a resident of Los Angeles, died intestate,[1] leaving an estate subject to probate in this state. She was survived by two nephews, one a resident of Oregon and one a resident of Virginia, a niece, a resident of Iowa, and a cousin, named Fay Milner, a resident of Los Angeles. Petitions for letters of administration were filed by Lynne Vernon, a long-time friend who is unrelated to decedent, and by the public administrator.

Through some unexplained inadvertence, the two petitions were not heard together as section 442 of the Probate Code provides. The petition of Lynne Vernon was granted on April 28, 1964, and she duly qualified. Thereafter, the Virginia nephew assigned a 2 percent interest in his distributive share to the California cousin, Fay Milner, and Fay Milner, in turn, nominated Lynne Vernon to be the administratrix of the estate.

On May 2, 1964, the public administrator filed a petition, under section 450 of the Probate Code, seeking revocation of the letters theretofore issued to Lynne Vernon and the issuance of letters to him. This petition was granted by an order dated February 1, 1965, from which the present appeal was taken.

I

Although section 423 of the Probate Code allows the court, where petition is by a nominee of one entitled to letters, to