Aviation: Celebrated Hermit

Everybody knows that Howard Hughes puts a high price on privacy, but no one ever guessed that it was worth $145 million to him. That is the sum that Trans World Airlines has sued him for—and the sum that a federal judge’s ruling last week put in jeopardy after Hughes steadfastly refused to appear in court. Hughes’s shyness, ruled the judge, was a “deliberate, willful default.”

As the business world’s most celebrated hermit, Hughes has been seen by no one in nine years except a handful of his most trusted associates. He controlled TWA until December 1960, when he was forced by a group of New York banks and insurance companies to place his stock in trusteeship in return for a $165 million loan to buy jets for TWA. When Hughes began to badger Charles Tillinghast, TWA’s new, trustee-appointed president, Tillinghast fought back by suing Hughes for damages. Hughes countersued, charging Tillinghast and the lenders with conspiring to take TWA away from him.

The tangle went into pretrial hearings that lasted 13 months, until Hughes’s time to testify came. Because Hughes refused to appear, the judge found him in default and dismissed his, suit against TWA. TWA has been smacking its lips over the prospect of a $145 million windfall—but it has not got the money yet. Since Hughes’s lawyers said that they will appeal, the judge decided to let the higher court determine whether TWA was actually damaged by Hermit Howard Hughes.