A Big Loss for Murdoch in Secret Court Battle

A probate commissioner in Nevada has handed Rupert Murdoch a big defeat in a court battle resembling—and sparked by—Succession. According to a sealed court document obtained by the New York Times, Edmund J. Gorman Jr. rejected the 93-year-old's attempt to change a family trust to ensure that his eldest son, Lachlan, the current CEO of Fox Corporation and chairman of News Corps, remains in charge and Murdoch's media outlets keep their conservative stance.

• A "scathing" ruling. The Times describes Gorman's Saturday ruling as "at times scathing." He said Murdoch and his son acted in "bad faith" in their attempt to change the irrevocable trust. If Murdoch had prevailed in the case, Lachlan's siblings Elisabeth, James, and Prudence would have been "almost powerless to make decisions" that ran counter to Lachlan's wishes, Deadline reports.

• The trust. Under the current trust, all four siblings will have equal voting power after Murdoch's death, the Guardian reports. Gorman described the plan to change the trust as a a "carefully crafted charade" to "permanently cement Lachlan Murdoch's executive role," regardless of the impact it would have on the company or the trust's beneficiaries. The proposed changes would have affected control of the media empire but not the siblings' financial stakes in the Murdoch holdings. "The effort was an attempt to stack the deck in Lachlan Murdoch's favor after Rupert Murdoch's passing so that his succession would be immutable," Gorman wrote.
• Succession. Testimony in September revealed that the siblings started planning a strategy last year for after their father's death, the Times reports. Gorman wrote that the discussions were sparked by an episode of HBO drama Succession "where the patriarch of the family dies, leaving his family and business in chaos."
• This isn't the end of the matter. Murdoch lawyer Adam Streisand tells the Times that he plans to appeal. And Gorman's word isn't final, the Times notes. The commissioner's ruling will be sent to a probate court, where it will be ratified or rejected by a district judge.

(More Rupert Murdoch stories.)