Astor Family Wants Hearings Closed to Public

Lawyers for Brooke Astor's family yesterday asked a judge to keep the public out of the courtroom where the 104-year-old philanthropist's guardianship case will be argued.

A lawyer for several news organizations, Katherine Bolger, said that it would be unusual for the proceeding to be closed and would "send the message the people who are wealthy have closed proceedings," the Associated Press reported.

A lawyer for Mrs. Astor's grandson said intimate details of Mrs. Astor's family life are expected to emerge during the hearings. Those details, the lawyer, Ira Salzman, said, should not be splashed across the front of New York newspapers.

"This is not about rich and poor," Mr. Salzman added.

Mr. Salzman's client, Philip Marshall, brought a lawsuit that accuses his father, Anthony Marshall, of neglecting to care for Mrs. Astor in recent years.

He has accused his father of cutting Mrs. Astor's staff, neglecting to fill her prescriptions, and of refusing to buy her new clothing, among other things. Anthony Marshall has denied the accusations, and has said that his aging mother has a staff of eight attendants in her Park Avenue apartment.

Mrs. Astor is a former grande dame of New York society. As the head of the Vincent Astor Foundation, she gave away nearly $200 million.

The guardianship case will settle who will be in charge of looking after Mrs. Astor's finances and making health care decisions for her.

"This is going to require an extraordinarily intimate view of what her life was like," Mr. Salzman said, referring to the evidence that will emerge in the hearings.

Allowing reporters to listen to those details would be a cruel reward for Mrs. Astor's decades of philanthropy, Mr. Salzman said.

"Mrs. Astor should not be punished because of her generosity," Mr. Salzman said. "If anything, she is entitled to more consideration, not less."

The lawyer for Mrs. Astor's son agreed that the courtroom ought to be closed. The lawyer, Harvey Corn, said that his client, Anthony Marshall, has received anonymous "threatening phone calls" following the extensive news coverage of the case.

The judge, John Stackhouse of state Supreme Court in Manhattan, did not issue a ruling yesterday.