Public Counsel - Pro Bono Online

Daily Journal- Oct. 14, 2003

Litigator Had Key Role in Hughes-Estate Battle

By Claude Walber

Daily Journal Staff Writer

LOS ANGELES - Paul Leo Freese Sr., retired head of the litigation department at Los Angeles' Kindel & Anderson and a key lawyer in the Howard Hughes estate battle, died Friday at his Pasadena home of complications from lung cancer. He was 74.

Freese became widely known as the counsel for maternal relatives of Hughes in litigation over the estate of the billionaire filmmaker and aviation pioneer.

Freese's son, Paul Freese Jr., recalled that after Hughes' 1976 death the decade-long litigation involved a colorful cast of 100 people. One of them wept with surprise and gratitude when told that a recently discovered will, apparently handwritten by Hughes, gave him a large slice of the estate.

The story of that man who thought he was going to inherit $100 million was made into the award-winning movie "Melvin and Howard." Melvin Dumar, a gas station attendant, claimed that he had picked up Hughes while he was hitchhiking through the Nevada desert. But in court the will was proved to be a fake.

Freese knew that specimens of handwriting by the secretive Hughes were hard to find, but a few had been included in a book. With his private investigator, Freese checked every public library within a 50-mile radius of the heir's home, said the younger Freese, who like his father is a lawyer.

They found a copy of the book with the handwriting exemplars missing, and the supposed heir's fingerprints on the book. That was the end of the forged will, the younger Freese said.

Freese, who retired four years ago, was born Feb. 22, 1929, in Chicago. His father, a plumber, moved the family to Wabasha, Minn., and his mother taught school there. In an account written by Freese of his early years, he told of his family's struggles. "He grew up poor," the younger Freese said.

He graduated from St. Felix High School. In 1952, he graduated from Georgetown University with a bachelor's degree in international relations. He enlisted in the Army, was sent to Korea and received a Purple Heart for wounds suffered during the battle for Pork Chop Hill.

Later, the Army assigned him to Japan, where he took the first steps toward fluency in that country's language.

" Japanese was one of his passions," his son said, recalling that while a law student he would awaken at 2 a.m. and hear his father reading Japanese aloud. "He didn't sleep much."

In 1957, Freese graduated from Stanford Law School, where he was a member of Order of the Coif. He spent his 40-year law career at Kindel & Anderson. Besides directing litigation, he also was a managing partner. He also taught civil procedure and extraordinary writs at Loyola Law School.

Freese served as president of the Catholic League, a lay group that promotes Catholic tenets. The church often called on him to speak on pro-life teachings, his son said. In one public discussion, Freese said something his son still remembers: "We all agree that religion and the state must be separated, but we should not accede to the separation of morality and the state."

Before his health declined, Freese often played golf. He also played bridge with his regular group "until the very end," his son said.

In addition to Paul Freese Jr. of Mar Vista, Freese is survived by his wife of 49 years, Mary Margaret Freese of Pasadena; three daughters, two of whom are lawyers, Mary Jean Rumer of Camarillo and Diane Evans of Pasadena, and Theresa Treek, who is stationed overseas with the State Department; another son, John S. Freese of Chino Hills; two sisters, Ann Holland of Newport Beach and Sara Ferrall of Fresno; and 10 grandchildren.

A vigil service will be today at 8 p.m., and a funeral Mass will be celebrated Wednesday at 11 a.m. Both will take place at Holy Family Catholic Church, 1501 Fremont Ave., South Pasadena. A private family interment is planned.