(10 of 11)
On the other side are three self-made and middle-class people who represent the anti-Houston faction within the Hughes empire, which finally prevailed in the long battle for Howard's ear. The last of the old-guard Texans were purged when he sold off the Hughes Tool Co. for $150 million in 1972. The three: Frank William Gay, 55, Summa's highest-ranking officer, began as a clerk in the early 1950s in Hughes' communications center, became the chief of the nurse-aides surrounding Hughes and was picked by him to be the holding company's executive vice president. The general counsel is Chester Davis, 65, the irrepressible Wall Street lawyer who ultimately won the twelve-year TWA antitrust suit for Hughes; he and Gay had long been rivals, but in the past two years have patched up their quarrels. The third member of the triumvirate is Nadine Henley, 69, Hughes' longtime and fiercely loyal administrative assistant.
The lines along which the legal battles will be fought will depend largely on whether one or more wills come to light. Much will hinge, too, on what evidence each side can produce about Hughes' state of mind at the time he executed any will. Since Hughes hated to sign his name, the signature may be questioned. Still, legal developments seem likely to take one of four possible routes:
> If there is not a valid will bequeathing the money to the medical institute, the Hughes estate will be subject to massive federal death taxes that will more than halve it (and will narrow the federal budget deficit a bit; after all, every little billion helps).
> If Hughes left a final testament bequeathing his estate to the medical institute, as he often said he intended, the money could be spared the ravages of the death tax. Gay and Co. would support this will, since it most likely would put them in control of the medical institute, which, in turn, would then be the sole owner of Summa. In that case, Summa would continue to function along its present lines but would pay its profits to the institute. The Hughes family could—and probably would—fight. Their lawyers would argue that Hughes was not of sound mind when he executed the will and that he had been under the control of the persons who benefited from the will. And the Government might also fight in the courts to remove the institute's tax-exempt status.
> If Hughes left more than one will, the situation would be even more complicated. There would be a long court examination over the different documents to try to determine which one was the most recent and whether it had been drawn and properly witnessed while Hughes was in his right mind.
> If Hughes left a single will dividing his estate between his relatives and the institute—and perhaps some others, including possibly the Mormon church—the various sides would be likely to fight anyhow. Each probably would go to court to assert its claim to the entire inheritance.