Newspapers Suits

An Orange County judge ruled Thursday that dissident shareholder Harry H. Hoiles cannot raise a number of controversial issues during the upcoming trial of his lawsuit to dissolve Irvine-based Freedom Newspapers Inc. and take one-third of its assets. Superior Court Judge Leonard Goldstein granted, without comment, four of six defense motions to exclude certain evidence that Hoiles sought to introduce, including testimony from a business psychoanalyst and a law professor.

The battle among the families that control Santa Ana-based Freedom Newspapers erupted anew Monday as one side of the Hoiles family claimed that another is mishandling a trust, the major asset of which is company stock. The three daughters of Clarence Hoiles, who died in 1981, alleged in an Orange County Superior Court suit that his brother, Harry, misused his role as trustee to their detriment. They seek $1.5 million in general damages plus unspecified punitive damages from Harry Hoiles.