Maheu

Robert Maheu appeals from an order of dismissal entered after the trial court sustained demurrers to his fourth amended complaint without leave to amend. The action arose out of the publication of Citizen Hughes, a best-selling book about Howard Hughes.

Appellant was Hughes’s aide from approximately 1956 to 1970. Appellant never met Hughes personally, but communicated with him largely by means of written notes throughout the final decades of Hughes’s life. Appellant brought his action against Donald Ray Woolbright, author Michael Drosnin, publishers CBS, Inc., Bantam Books and Playboy Enterprises, Inc., and booksellers B. Dalton, Inc., and Hunter’s Books. In the fourth amended complaint, appellant alleged seven causes of action: conversion, “conversion-constructive trust,” invasion of privacy (“false light,” “physical intrusion,” and appropriation of name, likeness or personality), commercial appropriation of the right of publicity, and interference with prospective economic advantage.

Appellant contends (1) the first and second causes of action adequately state the elements of conversion and are not barred by the statute of limitations or preempted by the Copyright…