Estate of Getty

Petition by Anne Catherine Getty to contest the 21st codicil to the September 1958 will of her grandfather, Jean Paul Getty. Petitioner does not contest the will and its first 20 codicils, but asserts that decedent lacked testamentaiy capacity when he executed the 21st codicil on 11 March 1976, or in the alternative that he executed the codicil under the undue influence of his close advisers. The trial court ruled petitioner was not an interested person within the meaning of Probate Code sections 370 and 380 and sustained respondents’ general demurrer without leave to amend. Petitioner appeals the judgment of dismissal.

The 1958 Getty will set forth a general plan of distribution which gave real property in Pacific Palisades and Getty’s art collection to the trustees of the J. Paul Getty Museum (museum). After individual bequests, the will left the residue of the estate directly to the museum trustees to become part of the museum’s endowment fund. If for any reason the bequest were invalidated, the residue of the estate would go to a trust created under the will, with income payable to specified universities. The will named decedent’s four sons, George F. Getty II, Jean…