JERRY GARCIA did not lead a tidy life. Followers of his band, the Grateful Dead, might not have expected a 401(k) from the man whose fondness for hallucinogens earned him the nickname ''Captain Trips.'' But only after he died in a drug-rehabilitation center in 1995 did the image of smiling 1960's idealism that Mr. Garcia personified onstage give way to a more troubling picture of financial problems, tangled relationships and a long struggle with heroin addiction.

Mr. Garcia did write a will, leaving some guitars to his guitar maker, Douglas Erwin, and asking that the rest of his estate be divided among Deborah Koons Garcia, his third wife and widow, his four daughters and his brother, Clifford. But Mr. Garcia let Deborah Garcia, the largest beneficiary, and David Hellman, his longtime lawyer, sort out the details as executors of the estate. They and the other potential beneficiaries -- those named in the will and those who made claims of their own -- did not see eye to eye.

Excerpts from the legal battle over the estate, which went to trial in probate court in Marin County, Calif., follow. TIM GOLDEN

The fight began when Deborah Garcia and David Hellman stopped payment on the divorce settlement that Mr. Garcia had signed on May 11, 1993, with his second wife, Carolyn (Mountain Girl) Adams Garcia. This was their one-paragraph agreement:

To whom it may concern:

Carolyn Adams Garcia and Jerome John Garcia hereby announce their decision to end their marriage and reach a settlement on the division of assets and property belonging to them. Since their relationship began in 1966, they lived together as husband and wife: the birth of their two children: Annabelle in 1970, Theresa in 1974; their legal marriage in 1981, and their joint assets have grown greatly. In order to simplify the process of dissolution, Carolyn Garcia agrees to a cash settlement of five million dollars, to be paid to her by Jerome Garcia, his estate, or his heirs. . . . When the settlement is paid in full, both Carolyn and Jerome agree to hold each other blameless and free.