Highfield

This is a petition for a writ of mandate to compel the superior court to direct the executor of the estate of Orlando Bozio, Senior, to employ the petitioner as attorney for the said executor in the administration of the said estate.

The petition is based on the fact that the will of the decedent, which has been admitted to probate, contained the following specific provision: “I direct and specially request, that my friend of many years Frank Highfield be the attorney of record and for the estate in the matter of the probating of my estate.”

A similar provision was considered by this court in the ease of Estate of Ogier, 101 Cal. 381 [ 40 Am. St. Rep. 61 , 35 Pac. 900 ]. In that case the executor, after his appointment, employed other attorneys and the attorney designated in the will applied to the court for a revocation of the appointment and for an order that he be entered as attorney of record in the place of the other attorneys. The court below denied the application. This court affirmed this ruling and held that the direction in the will “did not constitute a selection which was binding on the executor but was simply an advisory provision which she could disregard if she…