Estates of Lowe

HOUSER, P. J.

The appeal herein presents for the consideration of this court several questions that have arisen from the administration of the estate of Edmund G. Lowe and “Jane Doe Lowe”, on the assumption that each of them was a missing person who had estate within the county of Los Angeles, and that such estate required ‘‘attention, supervision, and care of ownership”. (Sec. 1822, Code Civ. Proc.; sec. 260 et seq., Prob. Code.)

It appears that one Aitken filed a petition in the superior court for the appointment of himself as “trustee of Edmund G. Lowe and Jane Doe Lowe, his wife, missing persons”. Briefly, the purport of the allegations contained in such petition was that Lowe and his wife were the owners of certain real property, which, in consequence of an oil lease thereof theretofore made to Aitken and thereafter assigned by him to the Union Oil Company, entitled Lowe and his wife to “a 4-1/6% landowners’ interest in the lease”;—with the result that the Union Oil Company then held approximately $5,000 to the credit of Lowé and his wife, which sum had been accumulated during several years theretofore passed; that an oil well on the property of said lessor was continuing to produce oil and gas, for which no accounting to the “missing” persons was being made; that for more than four years theretofore both Lowe and his wife had been “missing or their

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whereabouts unknown”; that Aitken had spent more than $100 in endeavoring to locate Lowe and his wife, and “that it is absolutely necessary that the estates of said Edmund G. Lowe, also known as E. G. Lowe, and Jane Doe Lowe, his wife, be attended to, supervised and cared for”; that Aitken “believes that the said Edmund G. Lowe, also known as E. G. Lowe, and Jane Doe Lowe, his wife, can be located and that your petitioner should be authorized to expend money from the estates to locate said Edmund G. Lowe, also known as E. G. Lowe, and Jane Doe Lowe, his wife, in endeavoring to locate them”.

Acting on said petition, the court appointed Aitken trustee of the estates of Lowe and his wife, as missing persons, with authority vested in him to “take charge and possession of said estates, and manage and control them under the direction of this court”. Thereafter, in addition to the $100 already expended by Aitken in search of the “missing” persons, Aitken’s final account was approved for $500 that was also expended by him for that purpose; besides $500 to the said trustee and $850 to his attorney for their respective personal services rendered in the matter. The appeal is from such order, which includes the approval of other expenditures by the trustee, as well as from another order by which a motion to vacate or set aside all proceedings “subsequent to the appointment of the trustee and filing bond” was denied.