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Most people want to leave something for their children when they die to ensure life is made a little easier.

Some on preparing to meet their maker, determine that certain children have the aptitude to carry on what was started and built and are comforted knowing that will be a safe pair of hands, seeing to it that the legacy doesn’t go awry.

It may become complicated if one is very rich and some family members feel entitled. The departed want their wishes carried out and use representatives to do so. In some cases, wills are changed and adjustments made. Some family members are in favour, some fall out of favour.

Rupert Murdoch formed one of the greatest media conglomerates the world has ever seen, spanning continents. His net worth has been placed at around US$25 billion.

Murdoch has six children and has been married five times. He wants his elder son Lachlan Murdoch to succeed him and control the empire it took him more than six decades to build.

Lachlan’s siblings James, Elisabeth and Prudence all want an equal share of their father’s businesses and challenged the amended family trust. Rupert Murdoch amended the family trust to ensure Lachlan would be the anointed one left to control the companies.

Nevada probate commissioner Edmund Gorman Jr has now held that both Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch acted in “bad faith” in changing the family trust to exclude James, Elisabeth and Prudence from equally running the businesses.

This information was obtained by the New York Times, very much like news organisations the world over reporting on affidavits and court documents. More often than not it is a matter of public record.

A joint statement by Prudence, Elisabeth and James Murdoch read: “ 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.”

The hit HBO show Succession depicts an ageing patriarch who has built a multi-billion empire and must choose his successor. His eldest son is an idiot who does not have what it takes to run the businesses successfully. The three other siblings scheme and connive to succeed their father, who dies leaving behind chaos and uncertainty.

In the case of Murdoch, it was held you can’t change the family trust which was created in 1999.

The commissioner deemed efforts to do so, “a carefully crafted charade”. This is not my words but what was in the legal document.

Family trust disputes can get messy and there is always the desire to keep it quiet and away from public gaze. In the case of huge conglomerates and renowned personages, people want to know the details. Rupert Murdoch has two young daughters with Wendi Deng. They are Grace and Chloe and they have no voting rights under the trust agreement.

Rupert Murdoch owns Fox, the Wall Street Journal, The Times, The New York Post and the Sun. He presides over News Corporation.. For some time it was reported that the battle to succeed Rupert would be between James and Lachlan who both held senior executive positions in the media businesses.

The initial plan was when Rupert died, his shares in the trust would go to his four older children in equal parts. This is a battle for power and control. It has become acrimonious and the world is watching.

Rupert Murdoch built an incredible media business by grit, determination, fortitude and talent. Rupert Murdoch is now 93 years old.

Commissioner Gorman instructively found that the trust’s representatives “demonstrated a dishonesty of purpose and motive”, in carrying out Rupert and Lachlan’s plans.

“The play might have worked but an evidentiary hearing like a showdown in a game of poker is where gamesmanship collides with the facts and at its conclusion all the bluffs are called and the cards lie face up”.

“The court, after considering the facts of this case in the light of the law, sees the cards for what they are and concludes this raw deal will not, over the signature of this probate commissioner prevail,” wrote Commissioner Gorman in his 96-page ruling.