PETER FRANCIS DUNNE

San Francisco County

Biographies

PETER FRANCIS DUNNE

DUNNE, PETER FRANCIS, Attorney-at-Law, San Francisco, California was born in San Francisco, California, December 29, 1860, the son of Peter Dunne and Margaret (Bergin) Dunne. Both his father and grandfather were among the California pioneers of 1849, merchants, in San Francisco, and subsequently owners of large tracts of land in Santa Clara County. He married Annie Cecilia Haehnlen in Oakland, California, June 28, 1898, and of their union there have been born three children, Arthur Bergin, Marian Wallace and Marjorie Evelyn Dunne.

After a general course in the classics Mr. Dunne was graduated from St. Ignatius College, in 1878, with the degree of Master of Arts, and then took up the study of law in the Hastings College of Law, San Francisco. He was graduated from that institution in 1881 a Bachelor of Laws.

A great power of sustained application and of logical analysis, a ready wit, calm self-possession when occasion most demands it and a natural aptitude form a combination that should win success in any profession, especially the law, and it is undoubtedly the happy blending of these qualities that has gained for Mr. Dunne the distinction he now enjoys as one of the most successful attorneys on the Pacific Coast and one of the best known professional men in the United States.

Shortly after his admittance to the Bar his skill in the conduct of his cases began to attract attention, and it was not long before his success in damage suits led one of the largest local corporations to retain him as its attorney at a large salary.

Thenceforth his reputation and his income grew apace, and during his rise to the post of general attorney for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company some of the most important causes ever tried at the California Bar were entrusted to him. In these his close manner of conducting them, combined with the eloquence of his arguments to the juries, marked him as a brilliant advocate.

In a celebrated case before the Supreme Court of California the justices spoke of Mr. Dunne’s argument as one of the best ever made in the State. This resulted in a reversal of the judgment favorable to his client.

Among his other noted cases, that in which, as special prosecutor, he secured, after two mistrials, the conviction of Dimmick for embezzlement while cashier of the U. S. Mint, is especially worthy of mention. Another, and one of the most bitterly contested in the annals of the California Bar, was that of Ames vs. Treadwell. In this Mr. Dunne was counsel for the defendant against four of the leading lawyers of California, and the thunders of applause that greeted the close of his argument forced the judge to clear the overcrowded courtroom.

The post of general attorney for the Southern Pacific Railway Company is one of the most important legal offices in the United States. Even the routine work of a corporation the magnitude of the Southern Pacific is of great volume, and often, involving as it does millions of dollars, of prime importance. But the Southern Pacific has of late years had to appear in the courts of the state of California and of the United States in some of the greatest litigations on record. And it is in these that Mr. Dunne has distinguished himself. He was attorney for the Southern Pacific in the days when E. H. Harriman was the head of the railroad, and was intimately familiar with the great work of expansion carried on by that greatest of railroad captains. He won the confidence of Harriman, so much so that the latter put him at the head of his great legal array. This was no slight honor, because Harriman, to represent the interests of his tens of thousands of miles of railroads, had gathered together probably the greatest group of corporation lawyers in the United States.

In the now celebrated merger case before the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, in special session at Denver, Mr. Dunne, as attorney for the Harriman roads, won a national fame. Despite all this, however, the allurements of private practice were so strong that in 1910 he retired from the general attorneyship for the Southern Pacific Company to a membership in his present firms.

A sample of Mr. Dunne’s ready wit was furnished in the Spreckels will contest, wherein he was counsel for the successful litigants, John D. and Adolph Spreckels, who sought to have the will of their father declared invalid. In a hypothetical question which he put to the court he said:

“Assume, that for instance, that I am the owner of the Spreckels building.” Probate Judge Coffey interrupted to suggest: “You will be, Mr. Dunne, before this litigation is ended.” Mr. Dunne replied: “I thank your Honor for so clearly foreshadowing the result.” Mr. Dunne is a member of the Pacific-Union, Olympic, Commonwealth and the San Francisco Golf and Country clubs.

Transcribed by Betty Vickroy.

Source: Press Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 851, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.

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San Francisco County

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