A US court has ruled against Rupert Murdoch's bid to change his family trust to consolidate control of his media empire in the hands of his son Lachlan, the New York Times has reported.
A Nevada commissioner concluded that Rupert and Lachlan acted in "bad faith" in their effort to amend the irrevocable trust, the newspaper reported, citing a sealed court document.
The trust currently would divide control of the company equally among Rupert's four oldest children — Lachlan, James, Elisabeth and Prudence — after his death.
But Rupert is understood to want his companies to continue acting as a politically conservative media force after his death.
Lachlan, who is the CEO and executive chair of Fox Corp and the sole chair of News Corp, is understood to be more aligned with his father's conservative politics than his siblings.
The move to change the trust was considered in a court hearing in Reno, Nevada, in September.
Rupert and his four eldest children were required to attend, but privacy provisions in Nevada's courts meant the hearing took place behind closed doors and few details were made public.
In a decision filed Saturday, local time, Commissioner Edmund Gorman said the plan to change the trust was a "carefully crafted charade".
He found it was designed to "permanently cement Lachlan Murdoch's executive roles" inside the empire "regardless of the impacts such control would have over the companies or the beneficiaries" of the family trust, the Times said.
A spokesperson for Prue, Elisabeth and James told the ABC: "We welcome Commissioner Gorman's decision and hope that we can move beyond this litigation to focus on strengthening and rebuilding relationships among all family members."
A lawyer for Rupert Murdoch, Adam Streisand, told the Times both he and Lachlan were disappointed with the ruling and intended to appeal.
The court ruling revealed that his children started discussing a PR strategy for his death in April last year, prompted by an episode of Succession — a TV drama about a media mogul and his frequently feuding children.
It prompted Elisabeth's representative on the trust to write a "Succession memo" aimed at avoiding the chaos depicted on the show after the death of the fictional patriarch, according to the court documents seen by the Times.
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