LOS ANGELES -- The judge who dismmised most of Vicki Morgan's $10 million palimony suit against the estate of the late presidential confidante Alfred Bloomingdale will hear arguments asking him to reconsider his decision, a court clerk said Tuesday.
Superior Court Judge Christian Markey granted the Nov. 1 hearing to consider a motion for a rehearing filed Friday by Miss Morgan's lawyer, Michael Dave, who will argue the case should be allowed to go to trial.
'It's a legal technicality,' Dave said of the hearing. 'It doesn't mean he will reconsider the case. He can turn it down.'
Dave said the major issue in the case is how integral a role sex played in the relationship between Bloomingdale, who died of cancer in August at age 66, and Miss Morgan, 30.
Markey dismissed the palimony suit on Sept. 28, ruling Miss Morgan was just 'a well paid mistress' to the department store heir, not a live-in lover, and therefore the landmark Marvin vs. Marvin case did not apply to her claim.
The judge however said a trial may proceed on two parts of the suit based on contracts Bloomingdale allegedly signed in a hospital shortly before he died.
Those actions -- totaling about $1.3 million -- seek $10,000-a-month support for Miss Morgan for two years and half of the profits from Bloomingdale's share of a joint business venture.
The sensational suit, originally filed by famed palimony lawyer Marvin Mitchelson, shocked Beverly Hills society and embarrassed the White House.
Bloomingdale, a co-founder of the Diner's Club and a member of President Reagan's elite 'kitchen Cabinet,' and his wife Betsy -- a close friend of first lady Nancy Reagan -- were frequent guests at the White House.
In sworn documents filed to support her suit, Miss Morgan claimed Bloomingdale told her 'White House secrets' and promised to give her half his interest in the ShowBiz Pizza Place restaurant chain and to support her for life if she became his 'traveling companion, confidante and business partner.'
In addition, Miss Morgan claimed she had treated Bloomingdale for a 'Marquis De Sade complex' throughout their affair.
