Forshadowing the imbroglio that
followed his death, renowned attorney Melvin Belli titled a chapter in
his 1983 book, "Where There's a Will, There's a Lawyer." In the book Belli
also offers, "Search and Caesar." That one's Chapter 11. |
It's fitting that
the Montgomery Street office building of Melvin Belli, the King of
Torts, is mired in a seemingly unending morass of lawsuits brought by Belli's
survivors, former business associates, neighbors, and the City. The flamboyant
and influential Belli was a pivotal figure in today's litigious society
as an innovator in the area of personal injury law. He took on big corporations
and controversial clients. Belli's clients included Errol Flynn, Jim and
Tammy Faye Baker, Lana Turner, Mae West, Muhammad Ali, and Jack Ruby. The
Gold Rush era building at 722 Montgomery Street
is a historical landmark and the offices where the renowned attorney held
court. Eventually reduced
to a ramshackle, the offices were once a monument
to Belli's $60 million success. Belli died in 1996 at the age of 88, just
a few months after filing for bankruptcy. Parties involved in acrimony over
the landmark property and/or a fortune in unfinished legal cases include
Belli's son Melvin Caesar Belli, the senior Belli's wife of three months
Nancy Ho Belli, the City's Building Inspection Department, and others. Particularly
galling to San Franciscans is the fact that Mrs. Belli, who announced the
ground breaking for a Belli museum on the site in 1997, sat on the San Francisco
Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board while she allowed the Belli building
fall into ruin.
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about the Bellis |