The Press: Oakland Case

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Meanwhile everything connected with unhappy Herminia Dargie was being dragged through California's courts. The cases ranged from unsuccessful attempts to break her will to a successful effort by her sister, Mrs. Wilson, to have Captain Martin removed as executor, on the charge that he had padded an expense account to the tune of $135. Proud, moody Captain Martin refused even to answer the charge. Mrs. Wilson assigned her interest in the estate (onefourth of the Tribune) to Publisher Knowland, and Captain Martin (who formerly sought solace in calculus) found a champion in one Sheldon F. Sackett, publisher of two small Oregon papers, who saw a chance to get a foothold in California. Captain Martin assigned him a two-thirds interest in his fourth of the paper in return for legal expenses. Messrs. Martin & Sackett soon found they had plenty to fight.

In September 1937 Publisher Leo E. Owens of the Ridder-owned St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch offered $1,070,000 for the estate's half-interest in the Tribune and its building company. Superior Court Judge John J. Allen denied the petition on the ground that outside ownership would result in "disharmony." In April 1938 Publisher Knowland, through a private investment company, bid in a quarter-interest in the paper and a half-interest in the building company for $311,200—which was exactly the amount needed to pay off Mrs. Dargie's cash bequests. This sale was confirmed by the same Judge Allen who had denied the $1,070,000 offer seven months earlier.

Left with only an eighth of a paper that had paid no dividend since 1933, Antonio Rodriguez Martin petitioned California's Appellate Court to set aside the sale. In June the court unanimously upheld Judge Allen's decision. Captain Martin appealed to the California Supreme Court, and it was the Supreme Court's refusal to review the decision which made no news on the coast last week.