Common Law

Abraham Lincoln Erlanger, who was head of A. L. Erlanger Amusement Enterprises, Inc. and who controlled more legitimate theatres than anyone else in the U. S., died in Manhattan, on March 7, 1930, of uremic poisoning and cancer. With him when he died was a buxom 46-year-old woman known at various times as Charlotte Leslie, Charlotte Fixel and Mrs. Abraham Lincoln Erlanger. By last week this woman was the central figure in a cause celebre. In order to secure what she believed was her rightful share in the Erlanger estate, valued in different estimates from $75,000,000 to $800,000, the woman was trying to prove that she had been Mr. Erlanger's common law wife. Mr. Erlanger had left his estate to a brother and two sisters one of whom. Miss Ray Erlanger. died last week, of cancer.

Developments in the case began on the night of Mr. Erlanger's death. Reporters who called at the Riverside Drive apartment were informed by the building superintendent that "Mrs. Erlanger issued instructions she was not to be disturbed." They then called on Mr. Erlanger's brother, former New York Supreme Court Justice Mitchell Louis Erlanger. Said he: "There is no Mrs. Erlanger. There is no widow." On the same evening, shrewd Lawyer Max D. Steuer announced that he had been retained as counsel for "Mrs. Erlanger." Said he: "There is not the slightest difficulty in proving that there is a Mrs. Erlanger."*

On March 10, 1930, the Erlanger will was filed. The will stated specifically that its author was unmarried. A few days later Lawyer Steuer filed his bill of objections, contending that the will in question was not the last Erlanger will, that at the time of its execution Erlanger was not of sound mind, that the will showed fraud and undue influence exerted by Mr. Erlanger's brother and sisters and Saul J. Baron, an executor of the will. Last October the matter came to trial.

Mr. Steuer's opponent in court, retained by the Erlanger heirs named in the will, was able little Isidor Kresel. In 1915 Mr. Erlanger had accused Mr. Steuer of blackmailing him in a suit for breach of contract brought by an actress. Mr. Kresel had subsequently tried to have Mr. Steuer disbarred. Bitter forensic rivals ever since, Mr. Kresel and Mr. Steuer met again last spring in the inquiry into the management of the Bank of United States. Mr. Steuer succeeded in indicting Mr. Kresel for perjury. Partly because Mr. Kresel and Mr. Steuer were busy with Bank of United States hearings, the beginning of the Erlanger case was delayed seven months.

Mr. Steuer soon belied his original observation concerning the difficulty of proving that "there is a Mrs. Erlanger." In order to show that his client was married by common law he had to show that Mr. Erlanger had acknowledged her as his wife. To do this he called in a troop of witnesses who had known her as Mrs. Erlanger. First were a housekeeper, an old friend, two assistants in a photographer's studio. Then came a lawyer who said Erlanger had feared that his brother would "make trouble"; the lawyer's wife, who said that Charlotte Fixel, writing to her in 1920 had stated that she had been married to Mr. Erlanger; five employes of an Atlantic City hotel; an actress; three waiters; a doorman; the proprietor of a suburban inn; a Pullman porter; a hairdresser; a former valet; various tradesmen; a room clerk in Manhattan's smart Ambassador Hotel.

Testimony brought out the fact that Charlotte Fixel had represented herself as Mrs. Erlanger; that she had nursed Mr. Erlanger assiduously through his last illness. Then Lawyer Steuer began to bring in names of the theatrical world. Producer A. H. Woods said that he had met the contestant in Paris as "Mrs. Erlanger." Funnyman Eddie Cantor rolled his eyes when asked about his profession, said: "Well, there has always been some doubt, but I am supposed to be an actor." He too had met the defendant, in 1925, as "Mrs. Erlanger." When Lawyer Steuer had introduced 104 witnesses who over ten years and in various places had known his client as Mrs. Erlanger, he rested his case.

Lawyer Kresel promptly moved that the case be dismissed, heard himself denounced in familiar terms by Lawyer Steuer. For the defense, Lawyer Kresel tried to make it appear that Miss Fixel was a designing and tenacious mistress, whom Mr. Erlanger would gladly have deserted if he had known how. He called the publicity manager of the Erlanger theatrical enterprises who told how Mr. Erlanger had once denied a rumor that he intended to divorce his wife by saying "It is a silly story because I'm not married." A minor theatrical producer, Marcus Heiman, said that Mr. Erlanger had repeatedly expressed distaste for Miss Fixel, said: "I want to get out of the clutches of this woman. . . ."

By last week, the Fixel v. Erlanger case was nearing its end. Charlotte Fixel had not been allowed to take the witness stand. She seldom heard her own name (Charlotte Fixel) or the name she had chosen when she was a chorus girl (Charlotte Leslie) mentioned by either counsel. Mr. Kresel called her "the contestant"; Mr. Steuer, pointing, described her as "the lady at the end of the table." Plump, smiling, dressed in the slightly garish style of a typical upper-west side hausfrau, Charlotte Fixel waited for the court to decide whether she was entitled to demand one-half of an estate which she estimated at $75,000,000 or whether she would emerge, after her years of slightly dubious affluence, a dumpy disappointed warning to women who place their faith in "common law."

*A Mrs. Adelaide Louise Erlanger, who divorced A. L. Erlanger in 1912, was last week granted $15,000 in alimony accrued since her divorced husband's death.

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