THE LEITER MILLIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18999, 23 October 1923, Page 9

THE LEITER MILLIONS

NEW TURN OF EVENTS. PROCEEDINGS AGAINST MARQUIS OURZON. Proas Association—By Telegraph—Copyrig A WASHINGTON, October 20. At_ Chicago Marquis Curzon, the British foreign Minister, was to-day accused by Mr Joseph Leiter, capitalist, of having inspired an attack charging Leiter, as trustee of the estate of his father, Levi Leiter, with gross mismanagement. The accusation was made in an answer filed in the Superior Court to a cross bill of the three daughters of Lord Curzon. The amount involved in the litigation is 100,000,000 dollars. The original bill was filed by the Duchess of Suffolk and Berks, LciterT sister, who alleged the mismanagement. The suit was filed at the behest of Lord Curzon because of Ins resentment of the fact that he was not named as a trustee of the estate. Inciter says that the charges arc unfounded.—A. and N.Z. Cable.

It was stated in May last that Lord Curzon, on behalf of his three daughters by his first wife, had joined Lady Hyde of Suffolk and Berkshire, in a suit alloging mismanagement by Mr Joseph Leiter and Mrs Colin Campbell of the late Mr Levi Letier.’s estate. Mr Levi Leiter, a Chicago millionaire, left his wealth to the first Lady Curzon, Lady Hyde, Mrs Campbell, and Mr Joseph Leiter—his four children—naming the last two as co-trustees. Disputes between the heirs have existed for years, finally resulting in a lawsuit asking for the removal of the co-trustees.

Lord Curzon’s marriage, in 1895, to Mary Victoria Leiter, the beautiful American heiress, caused much interest at the time in Anglo-American social circles. There was no son by the marriage. In 1917, some years after the death of his first wife, Lord Curzon married Grace Elvina, daughter of the late Mr J. Monroe Hinds (U.S.A.), and widow of Mr Alfred Duggan, of Buenos Aires. Mr Joseph Leiter is an active business man. He created a sensation in 1898 by huge purchases of wheat in anticipation of a rise in orices. making him the largest holder of wheat in the United States at the time.