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Sumner Redstone prevails in latest family feud

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Just another ho-hum day for the Redstone family, as a Massachusetts judge has ruled in favor of media mogul Sumner Redstone in a legal battle that he was engaged in with his nephew, Michael.

At issue was Michael Redstone’s contention that he’d been unfairly deprived of shares worth millions of dollars in National Amusements, the holding company through which Sumner Redstone owns controlling stakes in CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc. Michael claimed that his late grandfather Mickey (Sumner’s father and National Amusements’ founder) had created an oral trust to give him additional shares in National Amusements.

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Justice Margaret R. Hinkle of Massachusetts Superior Court in Suffolk County, ruled against Michael.

‘I conclude that the plaintiffs have not met their burden of proving that Mickey created oral trusts in 1959 for the benefit of [Michael’s deceased sister] Ruth Ann and Michael,’ she wrote in a decision issued last week. The case was argued in a four-day trial in July during which Sumner, his brother Edward, and former family attorney James DeGiacomo testified.

If Michael Redstone had won, National Amusements would have had to pay him anywhere from several million dollars to several hundred million, depending on whether the judge ruled that he was owed their value in 1984 or present day.

Michael and the trustees of his shares originally filed a suit in 2006 alleging that he had been undercompensated for selling his shares in Redstone’s privately held National Amusements back to the company in 1984 for $15 million. That case was dismissed in 2007 on the grounds that the statute of limitations had expired, but on appeal the state’s Supreme Judicial Court remanded one part of the decision back to a superior court: Michael’s claim that there was an oral trust created by Mickey Redstone to give him additional shares which he never received. The case was the latest of many feuds in Sumner Redstone’s fractious family over control and management of National Amusements.

Representatives for both sides of the case did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

-- Ben Fritz

Related:

Sumner Redstone back in court with feuding family (Jul. 28)

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Media mogul Sumner Redstone to sell nearly $1 billion in stock, maintains empire (Oct. 14)

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