Estate Of William Randolph Hearst V. Lubinski

Trustees under the will of William Randolph Hearst (Trustees) secured orders from the probate court on 26 March 1974 and 5 June 1975 cutting off public access to and sealing the probate files in Estate of Hearst. Thereafter, on 21 July 1976, on Trustees' further petition to seal the files the court declared it had "no authority to seal a Probate file and bar the public access thereto absent a statute granting such power" and entered an order vacating its prior orders. The court then stayed its vacation order to allow Trustees to take an appeal, which they have done.*fn1 Two members of the press (Newsmen) who opposed Trustees' petition below sought mandamus from this court to annul the probate court's stay and thereby open the probate file in Estate of Hearst to public inspection. We continued the stay to prevent the appeal from becoming moot, and we accelerated briefing of the appeal in order to resolve the issue expeditiously.