Holden Seeks Approval to See Lindsay : City Council: Colleagues will be asked to seek a court order to visit the ailing councilman. He has been hospitalized since September after a stroke.

Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden said Monday that he will ask the council to seek a court order permitting members to visit their ailing colleague, Gilbert Lindsay, before voting on whether to remove him from office.

Lindsay, whose 90th birthday is Thursday, suffered a stroke Sept. 2 that left him partially paralyzed and unable to speak. He is in stable condition in Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood, where he is permitted few visitors on orders from his stepson.

Holden said he plans to introduce a motion today authorizing the city attorney, if necessary, to seek the court order overruling the stepson’s wishes.

Michael Qualls, a spokesman for City Atty. James K. Hahn, said there is no legal precedent for such a move.

“It would be highly unlikely for a court to overrule the wishes of a family member in this type of situation,” Qualls said.

Holden said the attempt is necessary because he and other council members are frustrated by the lack of information available to them on Lindsay’s condition. The council has received no medical reports about the situation, he said.

Unless he is able to visit Lindsay, Holden said, he will refuse to vote him out of the council.

“I would need to see that he’s been stabilized and that there’s no way he’s going to improve,” Holden said.

The council began setting the stage for Lindsay’s removal earlier this month by invoking a technicality in the City Charter, which allows removal of a council member who has been absent from the city for 60 days or more without consent of the council.

On Nov. 1, the council stopped excusing Lindsay, who has served on the body for 27 years.

City Council President John Ferraro said he will support Holden’s motion and believes that it might do Lindsay some good to have more visitors. Ferraro said, “We’d certainly talk to the doctors” before the council acts regarding Lindsay’s seat.

Lindsay’s stepson, Herbert Howard, who works in Lindsay’s office, did not return calls from The Times on Monday. Howard said last week that he has told the hospital to turn away visitors because Lindsay requested such restrictions several years ago.

Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., the lawyer who drafted Lindsay’s will, would not comment on whether he will seek a conservatorship for Lindsay, a legal action that could have bearing on Lindsay’s status on the council. Cochran said he had met with Howard “regarding the protection of the councilman’s rights.”

Maureen Archambault, director of patient affairs at Freeman hospital, said such a situation has not arisen in recent memory. The hospital generally defers to the wishes of the family, she said. “We really try to stay out of personal matters.”