A Nevada judge has put an end to any talk that Rupert Murdoch’s secret family court battle might go public, ruling that the case – which centers on who will inherit his fortune and media operations upon his death – will remain sealed.
The news comes after major American news outlets, including CNN, NPR, the Washington Post, ABC, and Reuters, all submitted a petition to the court requesting that the case be unsealed and journalists given access to the court. The case will remain sealed because all members of the suit, which include Murdoch’s sons and daughters, have agreed that it should remain a private case.
Family members are hashing it out over who should inherit the 93-year-old media tycoon’s estate and media operations, with Murdoch himself arguing that his left-leaning children would endanger his media empire.
The case is moving ahead in Nevada – and for good reason. In Nevada, family trust cases allow all parties of the suit to keep matters so private that they don’t even appear on court dockets. As far as the media is concerned, the case…may not even be happening.
But it is.
In July, the New York Times reported that the case was going ahead, with only one piece of evidence: a docket that has since been made public, titled “The Matter of Doe 1 Trust, PR23-00813.”
And that’s all we’re going to get.
Attorneys representing family members said in court filings that the case should remain behind closed doors because it would risk revealing confidential information about the Murdoch family business. The judge agreed with attorneys from both sides, arguing that a family trust is “essentially a private legal arrangement.”
The judge ruled that the only documents that may be made public are documents relating to the petition to open up the case, stating that the public has the right to know who the attorneys are in the case, and who the judge is. Beyond that, we aren’t entitled to see anything else.
And so…that’s that. We’re never going to know what goes on behind closed doors, but we’ll presumably know what happens once Murdoch passes away.
