Theater Is Due Money Promised, Judge Rules : Courts: Estate of Richard H. Barclay is ordered to finish paying a $1-million pledge made in 1990 to the UCI venue that bears his name.

The theater bears his name because developer Richard H. Barclay pledged $1 million toward its construction.

But after receiving only $400,000, the Irvine Barclay Theatre took his widow, Marjorie Barclay, to court for the rest of the money--and Wednesday it won.

Orange County Superior Court Judge James H. Poole ruled that a one-page agreement between Richard Barclay and the theater was valid and enforceable and ordered Marjorie Barclay and her husband’s estate to pay the full pledge.

Marjorie Barclay had contended the pledge agreement between her husband and the Irvine Barclay Theater was not legally valid, and the theater was free to change the name and keep the $400,000 her husband had contributed before his death.

“I told them that from the beginning, take the name off,” she said Wednesday outside the courtroom, adding that she had had nothing to do with the agreement. “I signed nothing.”

Theater and city officials expressed relief, even though they said they never doubted they were in the right.

“We’re sorry we had to go to litigation; it’s not something we wanted to do,” said Gary Singer, chairman of the theater operating company’s board of directors. “But we’re obviously very pleased with the court’s decision. We think it was the correct one.”

The decision “just reaffirmed what we believed to be the case when Mr. Barclay entered into the agreement,” Irvine City Manager Paul O. Brady Jr. said.

The $600,000 to be paid by Marjorie Barclay will replenish funds spent on the $17.6-million theater set on 2.3 acres at UC Irvine, officials said.

The UC Irvine Foundation, the city of Irvine and the theater sued Marjorie Barclay and the estate of her husband in November, accusing the family of failing to pay $600,000 of the $1 million pledged to the 750-seat theater.

Richard Barclay, a Newport Beach real estate developer, had announced the pledge in 1990 to help complete construction of the theater, which is supported by the city and university. Theater officials in return announced the theater would be named after him.

Barclay made two payments of $200,000 to the UCI Foundation, in June, 1990, and June, 1991, according to the suit. The payments stopped after Richard Barclay’s death in June, 1992.

University officials said repeated attempts to negotiate payment were made without success before filing suit, and that money exists in the estate to honor the pledge. Failure to honor the pledge, they said, was not fair to other donors who didn’t have an opportunity to have something named after them.

In response to the lawsuit, attorneys for Marjorie Barclay said she had been having financial difficulties since the death of her husband and that she was not legally obligated to honor a pledge she did not personally make.

Attorneys Jeffrey S. Benice and Randolph B. Godshall also argued that university officials who handled the agreement had no authorization to do so.

Raymond J. Ikola, an attorney representing the foundation, countered that the agreement was valid and the theater kept its promise to name the theater after its benefactor.

The attorneys for the Barclay family promised an appeal.

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Times staff writer Zan Dubin contributed to this report.