S&L;: Crash Was Accident, President Says : Owner’s Death Not a Suicide--S&L; President

The owner of an insolvent Santa Ana savings and loan association would not have deliberately crashed his car to kill himself hours before state regulators seized the lending institution, its president said Saturday.

Brooks A. Miller, president of North America Savings & Loan Assn., said Duayne D. Christensen, a dentist and owner of the failing savings and loan, had no reason to take his own life early Friday morning.

“He had been working very feverishly to try and save the business. He was a devoted worker. That was his life,” said Miller, who had worked for Christensen since 1983. “He was a good man who enjoyed life. He had everything to live for and I don’t believe he would deliberately take his life.”

Lost Nearly $9 Million

Christensen, 56, was killed instantly when his speeding 1985 Jaguar missed a curve on the Corona del Mar Freeway and smashed into an abutment. A Newport Beach resident who practiced dentistry in Westminster, Christensen had worked all night before the accident trying to salvage the institution, which had lost nearly $9 million last year.

There was speculation that Christensen, who had a history of heart trouble, may have suffered a heart attack at the time of the crash. But a deputy coroner declined Saturday to divulge the results of an autopsy “pending further investigation.”

“At this point, we just don’t know if it was an accidental or a deliberate death,” said Deputy Coroner Pam Aiken.

Meanwhile, William Davis, deputy state savings and loan commissioner, said that he and a dozen state auditors were working through the weekend at North America Savings’ offices to determine the exact financial condition of the institution.

“At this point, we only have preliminary figures, and it won’t be until Monday before we know,” Davis said Saturday.

North America Savings is scheduled to reopen Monday under conservatorship of the Department of Savings and Loan, marking the first time in 35 years that the state agency had taken over an institution, Davis said.

Davis said he will direct day-to-day operations when the institution reopens, but all of its officers and directors, including Miller, will be retained.

When state Savings and Loan Commission member William J. Crawford ordered North America Savings closed Friday, it had a negative net worth of $1.5 million. Christensen had been under orders from the state regulatory agency to raise $7 million in capital to save the business.

Davis said that Christensen had been warned since last June to find new capital or face closure for insolvency. Apparently, North America had lost millions of dollars through bad real estate loans, he said.

However, a North America Savings officer, who talked on condition that his name not be published, said that there were only two or three bad real estate loans and that was not the reason the institution turned insolvent.

Fall of Oil Prices Blamed

“That’s not the problem,” he said. “The problem is with the general collapse of the oil prices. And that is something that no one could have foreseen.”

The officer also said Christensen was not responsible for the economic woes of North America Savings. “He worked very hard and he tried to make it work, but it was not his fault,” he said.

The decision to close the ailing savings and loan had been made before Christensen’s death, Davis said, adding that the owner had been given a deadline of noon Friday to find the capital to keep his business solvent.

“The death had nothing to do with our action. The two events are not connected,” Davis said. “The only thing is that we won’t be able to talk directly to Dr. Christensen. He could have perhaps been helpful in resolving some of the issues.”

Christensen had practiced dentistry in Orange County for 28 years. A secretary described him as a “very private man,” who was divorced. He is survived by three grown children.