Read All About It: Hearst Heirs in Nasty Feud

A probate rumble, plus the legal affairs of Johnnie Cochran, Elke Sommer, Carrie Fisher, Spiderman and Godzilla.

For decades, heirs of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst have lived in fear of a clause in his will known by the daunting legal term in terrorem. It means what it says. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Challenge this will and you won’t see a dime. And don’t even think about suing.

After his death in 1951, Hearst’s will--at 125 pages the longest and most complex ever filed in California--gave the 13 trustees of the sole asset, Hearst Corp., the power to disinherit any of the 35 adult heirs should they interfere with corporate affairs.

Now, a dissident branch of the Hearst family is trying to win the right to sue the trustees for allegedly abusing their positions. They want to make the trustees more accountable regarding how they run the $5-billion empire of newspapers, magazines, television stations, syndicated comics and publishing houses.

William R. Hearst II, Deborah Hearst Gay and Joanne H. Castro are asking a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to read their proposed lawsuit first and then let them know whether the trustees could legally use it to disinherit them.

The papers have not been made public. The probate file has been sealed by the court since 1975, when Patty Hearst was kidnapped, in part because the various and assorted heirs do not want people knowing where they live.

The latest dispute, however, is expected to receive a public airing at a hearing May 28 before Judge Gary Klausner.

According to one of the heirs’ attorneys, John A. Sturgeon, the complaint involves allegations that the trustees refuse to disclose how much the top Hearst officers are paid. They don’t discuss the bonuses they pay themselves. They don’t even respond to letters.

Their Los Angeles lawyer, R. Wick Stevens II, didn’t return our phone calls, either.

“The problem you have is that the corporation does not supply the information that I would get as a 100-share owner of IBM,” Sturgeon said. “This is like the hired help telling the owners to get lost.”

THE EX FILES: Johnnie L. Cochran distinguished himself as quite the poet during his closing argument in the O.J. Simpson case. Here’s a suggested update for the silver-tongued lawyer: If you lose on appeal, ask the judge to seal.

Cochran is asking a judge for a protective order to keep secret his deposition in his own palimony case. That case had been dismissed by another Superior Court judge but was resuscitated late last year by the state Court of Appeal.

Cochran’s former longtime companion, Patricia Cochran, is suing him in Los Angeles Superior Court for breach of contract. She says he promised to take care of her for life, but hasn’t made a single support payment since 1995.

The request to seal Cochran’s deposition comes in the midst of a discovery battle in the case.

Attorney Larry Feldman said in court papers that Cochran’s privacy could be invaded if transcripts fall into tabloid hands. Superior Court Judge Alexander H. Williams III is expected to rule on Cochran’s request after an April 21 hearing.

WAS IT SOMETHING I SAID?: Actress Elke Sommer has been slapped with a pair of lawsuits in Los Angeles Superior Court over a soured venture involving golf putters.

Both suits were filed by attorney William L. Zeltonoga. The first accuses Sommer and former hotelier Wolf Walther of backing out of a business deal with an outfit called Squirrel Canyon Inc. after demanding more money. The second accuses them of defaming Zeltonoga, one of its partners.

Squirrel Canyon claims that Sommer and Walther agreed in November to pay $300,000 for 135,000 shares of stock, and become directors of the company. Then, the suit charges, they tried to renegotiate a better deal for themselves at a meeting in February.

Zeltonoga claims in his lawsuit that Walther defamed him at the meeting by telling another partner he should be disbarred.

Sommer, according to the lawyer’s suit, also defamed him by calling him “weak and gutless.” The suit also alleged that Sommer said the lawyer “was greedy and a pig and only wanted to get fatter and fatter” on the golf company’s business. She also said he “had a Napoleon complex” and couldn’t be trusted “because he had dark eyes,” the suit charged.

Sommer is no stranger to the price of wounding words. In 1993, a jury in Santa Monica awarded her a record $3.3 million in a defamation case against Zsa Zsa Gabor, who allegedly told two German magazines that Sommer was a bald-headed has-been.

Neither Zeltonoga nor Sommer could be reached.

BUMPER CARS: What is it about stars and their cars? Add Carrie Fisher and Halle Berry to the list of celebs being sued in Santa Monica Superior Court over motor vehicle mishaps. Roger Banos charged that Fisher ran her Toyota RAV4 into his 1994 Firebird on Santa Monica Boulevard last May 20. Kevin Ackerman contended that Berry smashed her Range Rover into his 1987 Volkswagen at Wetherly Drive and Sunset Boulevard on Feb. 6.

Other celebs sued recently over automotive misadventures include Alicia Silverstone, Raquel Welch, Tim Allen, Stockard Channing and Todd Bridges.

SUPERHERO, MONSTER IN LEGAL LIMBO: Alas, we won’t be seeing James “King of the World” Cameron following up his Titanic tidal wave with an updated Spiderman epic, even though Daily Variety reports that he would very much like to. The rights to the Marvel comic book character are tied up in a dispute in Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., where Marvel is undergoing a reorganization of its finances.

Meanwhile, publisher William Morrow and Co. will have to await resolution of another legal dispute before putting out a book about Godzilla, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled.

U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian said the dispute very well could end favorably for the Japanese company that made the first Godzilla flick in the 1950s. The company, Toho Co., says it owns the rights to Godzilla and granted TriStar Pictures the rights for a remake movie, due out next month. And, Toho says it has allowed all publishing rights to go to Random House.

Toho has sued Morrow, claiming copyright infringement over its planned tome, the 227-page “Godzilla!”

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Times staff writer Louis Sahagun and correspondent Sue McAllister contributed to this column.