Estate of Friedman

In the probate court of the city and county of San Francisco, Honorable Thomas F. Graham presiding, and in the matter of the estate of Julius Friedman, deceased, application was made under section 170 of the Code of Civil Procedure, for a transfer of all the matters and proceedings in said estate to another department of the superior court. The motion was denied and from the order denying it this appeal is taken.

Julius Friedman died testate in 1900 and his will was duly admitted to probate. The inventory value of his estate in that year was four hundred and sixty-six thousand dollars, and it has since enhanced in value. The will was holographic. It declared that the testator knew of no relatives who could lay claim to any portion of his estate. It left bequests to friends to the amount of thirty thousand dollars, a trust fund for the poor of his native city, Mitau, in the sum of fifty thousand dollars, other bequests aggregating twenty thousand dollars to named orphan asylums and charitable institutions in San Francisco, and finally directed that “the entire residue so found shall go and be given to the within mentioned society, Hebrew Home for Aged Disabled of San Francisco,…

This is an appeal from an order refusing to transfer all proceedings in the aforesaid estate to another department of the superior court.

The motion to transfer the proceedings was based on the alleged prejudice and bias of Honorable Thomas F. Graham, before whom said proceedings were then pending. The essential facts relied on in support of the motion are as follows:

The administration of the estate has been proceeding in the superior court of San Francisco from the year 1900 down to the present time. The will of the decedent, which was duly probated, gave the residue of the estate to a charitable corporation known as the Hebrew Home for Aged Disabled of San Francisco, California. In 1901 that corporation instituted a proceeding, under section 1664 of the Code of Civil Procedure, to determine to whom distribution should be made and the interest and estate of each person declared to be entitled. Many different sets or groups of persons appeared therein claiming heirship, among, them appellants herein. This proceeding is still pending, and had so far advanced that judgment that the testator left no heirs had been entered in the superior court and a motion for a new trial of that…