Los Angeles County
Biographies
HOMER CURTIS MILLSAP
MILLSAP, HOMER CURTIS, Attorney-at-Law, Los Angeles, California, was born at Colfax, Iowa, on May 10th, 1881, the son of Albert and Melissa (Shepard) Millsap. Mr. Millsap married Bess B. Chaney, of Lima, Ohio, and one child has been born to them, Margerie Elizabeth. Mr. Millsap attended the public schools of his native city, later graduating from the high school at Ashland, Oregon. Upon the completion of his high school education, he entered and graduated from Drake University, at Des Moines, Iowa, and the Iowa College of Law, receiving his degree of LL.B. in 1897. He was then sixteen years of age, and the youngest graduate in the United States up to that time of any reputable law school.
Mr. Millsap’s fitness for the practice of his profession was recognized by Judge Chester C. Cole, ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Iowa, and he took the boy barrister into his office, where he instructed him in the practical branches of his profession. For two years Mr. Millsap was an active assistant of Judge Cole’s.
In 1899 Mr. Millsap left his friend, the ex-Justice, to take up the practice of his profession in Los Angeles, California, and was admitted to practice in California in 1900 and has pursued his profession in the city of Los Angeles since that time.
Mr. Millsap has specialized in corporation law, and at the present time handles the legal business of nearly a score of important concerns in Los Angeles.
The determination with which Mr. Millsap prosecutes his cases is evidenced by the record in the case of The People vs. Murphy. In said case, as attorney for the Brunswick-Balke-Callender Company, he has challenged the validity of an ordinance of South Pasadena prohibiting the playing of games of pool and billiards, or the maintenance of public places for the conduct of these pastimes. The question has been presented by application for writ of habeas corpus to the Superior Court, to the Appellate Court, to the Supreme Court of California, and finally, by appeal from the Superior Court of Los Angeles to the Supreme Court of the United States, where the case is now pending.
This case is one of national importance, not only because of the millions of dollars placed in jeopardy, but because of the effect it will have upon amusement enterprises in general throughout the United States. It is the contention of Mr. Millsap and his clients that if the anti-billiard and pool ordinance is declared valid other lines of amusement and business will be in danger of destruction. Mr. Millsap has had several other important litigations in the California courts recently, in nearly all of which the constitutionality of several laws has been called into question.
Mr. Millsap, at the outset of his career, was recognized at once, despite his youth, as one of the most conscientious and competent practitioners in Los Angeles, and his success in the first few years following his entry into the field attested to his ability. In March, 1910, he formed a partnership with C. Randall Sparks, under the firm name of Millsap & Sparks, but this association was dissolved in the early part of 1911, and Mr. Millsap returned to practice by himself.
Since his earliest days in Los Angeles he has been a worker for the civic progress of the city and has at all times stood ready to aid in any movement having this for its object.
He has never held nor sought public or private office of any kind, and although in no sense a politician he has always favored the policies of the Republican party.
Mr. Millsap is a member of the California and Los Angeles Bar Associations and of the Los Angeles Athletic Club. He is, however, essentially a home lover.
Transcribed 12-12-11
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 893, International
News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston,
Atlanta. 1913.
© 2012 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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BIOGRAPIES