Melvin and Howard, The Sequel: Court Dismisses Fraud Suit Against Hughes Heirs

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals affirms the dismissal of a fraud suit brought by Melvin Dummar, a beneficiary under Howard Hughes’s purported handwritten will, against Hughes’s intestate heirs. Dummar v. Lummis (10th Cir. No. 07-4062, Sep. 12, 2008).

Ever since Howard Hughes’s death in 1976, Melvin Dummar has maintained that he was entitled to a share of the billionaire’s estate. Mr. Dummar claimed that in 1967 he gave a ride to a disheveled and bloodied man who said he was Howard Hughes. After Mr. Hughes’s death, Mr. Dummar claimed he received a letter containing Mr. Hughes’s handwritten will bequeathing him a 1/16 share of Mr. Hughes’s immense estate. The will was challenged by Mr. Hughes’s heirs. In 1978, a jury rejected the holographic will and determined that Mr. Hughes died intestate. Mr. Dummar received nothing from the estate. (Mr. Dummar’s story was the inspiration for the 1980 film “Melvin and Howard,” which won two Academy Awards.)

In 2006, Mr. Dummar filed suit in federal district court against two of Mr. Hughes’s heirs after he obtained information he believed suggested fraud in the 1978 case. He alleged that in the 1978 suit the heirs had deprived him of his inheritance by conspiring to cause the jury to reject the holographic will by concealing evidence of Hughes’s movements. He asserted claims of fraud, violations of federal and state RICO statutes and unjust enrichment, and sought more than $150 million in damages. The district court dismissed the claims, finding that they were barred by issue preclusion based on the 1978 judgment.

Mr. Dummar appealed. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals affirms, ruling that the fraud and federal RICO
claims are time barred, the state RICO claim fails to state a claim and the unjust enrichment claim is barred by issue preclusion.

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