Hughes Tool Company v. Fawcett Publications, Inc.

MARVEL, Vice Chancellor:

For a period of approximately thirty-two years prior to 1957 the defendant Noah Dietrich was first an employee and later a director and the executive vice-president of Hughes Tool Company, one of the plaintiffs in the above consolidated action. In such latter positions of trust and confidence Mr. Dietrich became a close personal associate of and a financial adviser to Howard R. Hughes, the sole stockholder of Hughes Tool Company, who apparently came to lean heavily on Mr. Dietrich for aid and counsel in the handling of his personal and business problems. Eventually,…