Estate of Darms

J. Marion Wright and Owen E. Kupfer for Objector and Appellant.

Mendelsohn, Haves & Miller, Haves & Miller and Howard P. Miller for Petitioners and Respondents.

ROTH, P. J.

Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children, a Colorado corporation, residuary legatee of the estate here involved, appeals from an order admitting to probate a letter entirely written, dated and signed by decedent as a codicil to a prior will.

Michael Darms, a railroad conductor, died on March 9, 1963. He had executed a formal will on March 14, 1957, when a resident of Salt Lake City, Utah. At the time of his death decedent was a resident of California. The formal will named Walker Bank and Trust Company, a Utah corporation, (Bank) as executor of his estate and trustee of a testamentary trust created in the will. The formal will was admitted to probate in California on June 11, 1963.

Bank could not qualify as executor or trustee. As a consequence John Lawrence and Mac Clement were appointed as administrators with-the-will- annexed and United California Bank was named as trustee. An accounting was filed. Judgment approving and settling the first account and for preliminary distribution was signed and filed on…