Excerpt from In the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, for the Ninth Circuit: William Ellsworth Hewitt (Also Known as William Ellsworth Puett), Appellant, Vs. Elvira A. Hewitt and Elverna O. Gillons, Appellees; Appellees' Brief

The complaint is predicated upon the contention that complainant, who had been adopted by Hewitt some fifty years before Hewitt's death on January 9, 1922, was prevented from presenting to the Probate Court his claim of heirship prior to the making therein of the decree of' distribution, and that he was so prevented either by the fraud of defendants or through mistake.

There are but two allegations of fraud, to-wit: (1) that the defendant, Elvira A. Hewitt, widow, falsely stated to complainant's agent (attorney in Los Angeles) in answer to a telephone inquiry in August, 1922, that Mr. Hewitt was out of town but would return the next week, and that complainant was thereby deceived into believing that Hewitt was then alive although he had already been dead some seven months and his estate was then in process of administration [10, and (2) that defendants, having knowledge of the existence of the complainant and his relationship to Hewitt and having knowledge of his whereabouts, fraudulently suppressed mention of the complainant as one of the heirs of de cedent in the probate proceedings on Hewitt's estate. [61, These allegations are specifically denied by the answers of both defendants, and the evidence conclusively shows, and the trial court so found that at the time the widow is alleged to have made the representation over the telephone she was, in fact, making a trip through the East and accordingly could not possibly have made the repre scutation claimed. The evidence further shows, and the trial court so found, that the defendant daughter did not at any time prior to distribution of the estate have anyknowledge or information respecting the existence of complainant or even that Hewitt (her father) had ever had an adopted son [79] and that, while the widow knew that at one time there had been an adopted son, she had no information as to where he might be living [77] and the only information she had respecting the fact as to whether he might be alive at the time of Hewitt's death was derived from the following, to-wit; that at one time she had seen some old wills mentioning an adopted son, but in conversation with Hewitt had been told by him that the adopted son had been taken away from him by the court and had been returned to his natural parents and that Hewitt had later heard that he had died.

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