Paul Sakuma/Associated Press
Mark Hurd in 2007.
On Wednesday a Delaware court ruled that the contents of a June 2010 letter from a lawyer, Gloria Allred, to Hewlett-Packard’s then-chief executive, Mark Hurd, can be made public. The letter, which discussed the relationship between Mr. Hurd and Ms. Allred’s client, Jodie Fisher, set in motion a series of internal investigations at H.P. that led to Mr. Hurd’s resignation on Aug. 6, 2010.
Mr. Hurd, now a president at Oracle, had tried to keep the letter private, citing California law. Spokeswomen at Oracle and H.P. declined to comment. The letter will likely be released in 10 to 15 days.
The court’s ruling came in a lawsuit by an H.P. shareholder, Ernesto Espinoza. In the decision, the court said the substance of the letter has already been reported in the press, and called its contents “mildly embarrassing,” and so not protected from disclosure, unlike trade secrets and private financial information.
A person who is close to parties involved and has seen the letter but is not authorized to discuss it said it tries to “hit all the dramatic points” of the relationship between Mr. Hurd and Ms. Fisher.
Ms. Fisher, a marketing contractor, said Mr. Hurd had sexually harassed her, although the investigation by the board of directors ultimately found no evidence to support that claim. The board found that Mr. Hurd had violated the company’s code of conduct relating to expense reports connected to his meetings with Ms. Fisher.
“We requested the court keep the letter confidential because, as Ms. Fisher has acknowledged, it is filled with inaccuracies,” said Amy Wintersheimer, employment attorney for Mr. Hurd, in a statement.
“The truth is, there never was any sexual harassment, which H.P.’s investigation confirmed, and there never was any sexual relationship, which Ms. Fisher has confirmed,” Ms. Wintersheimer said.
Ms. Fisher also has said that Mr. Hurd told her about a meeting he was going to have with an executive from Electronic Data Systems before H.P. bought the company,
Last December, officials with the Securities and Exchange Commission started a preliminary inquiry into Mr. Hurd’s resignation. A spokeswoman for the Securities and Exchange Commission, citing commission policy, would not comment on whether any investigation is taking place.