Jack Swink; Judge in Getty Probate Case

Retired Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Jack Swink, who finalized what was then the largest probate case in history when he handed the bulk of J. Paul Getty’s estate to the oil billionaire’s self-named museum in Malibu, has died. He was 75.

Swink, who sat on the vast Los Angeles court from 1972 to 1987, died Friday in a hospital near his La Canada Flintridge home, said his daughter, Bonnie Mohr.

On May 20, 1982, Swink concluded the six-year court probate of Getty’s relatively uncomplicated will by allotting $27.2 million to executors and lawyers and the remaining $1.3 billion to the Getty Museum. The wealthiest museum in the world since that day, the Getty has opened a new $1-billion complex overlooking the San Diego Freeway and closed its Malibu facility for renovation.

Respected for his scholarly adherence to the law, Swink rejected protests from state lawyers who oversee charitable trusts that the fees were excessive. The judge said he had no authority to change the legally established rates no matter how large the result in such a large estate might be.

During his tenure as presiding judge of the Superior Court’s Probate Department in the late 1970s, Swink handled several legal skirmishes among the lawyers and would-be heirs swarming around the estate of Howard Hughes. Unlike the orderly Getty, the reclusive aerospace tycoon Hughes left no will. Several purported wills were proffered, requiring years to sort out in courts in California, Nevada and elsewhere.

Swink presided over a number of high-profile civil cases, including the jury trial of an unsuccessful $30-billion slander suit against CBS by a doctor who contended that the network’s “60 Minutes” linked him to insurance fraud.

Before his appointment to the bench by Gov. Ronald Reagan, Swink practiced civil law for 20 years with his own firm, originally named Killion, Clarke & Swink.

Born in Rocky Ford, Colo., Swink moved to North Hollywood with his family when he was a toddler, and graduated from North Hollywood High School, where he was student body president and valedictorian.

His early studies at the University of Redlands and Texas Technological College in Lubbock, Texas, were interrupted by service in the Army Air Corps during World War II. After the war, he completed his degree at USC and went on to graduate with honors from Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles.

Swink served as president of the San Fernando Valley Bar Assn., and became a community leader as chairman of the East Valley YMCA and president of the North Hollywood Rotary Club. He helped to establish Child Help USA.

In addition to his daughter, he is survived by his wife of 50 years, Doris Nelson Swink; two sons, Clark and Scott; two sisters, Kitty Lou Schilling and Elizabeth Maxheimer, and three brothers, Robert, George and Harry, and four grandchildren.

Services are scheduled Friday at noon at the Hill Avenue Grace Lutheran Church, 73 N. Hill Ave., Pasadena.

The family has asked that any memorial contributions be made to Child Help USA, P.O. Box 247, Beaumont, CA 92223, or to the East Valley YMCA, 5142 Tujunga Ave., North Hollywood, CA 91601.