Not So Fast

How much is it worth to have the President's ear? Two and a half months ago a sympathetic Manhattan jury decided that if the whisperer was Oilman James A. Moffett, it was worth plenty. The jury awarded the onetime FHAdministrator a fat $1,150,000 judgment in his suit against Arabian American Oil Co., Inc. for certain "services rendered" (TIME, Feb. 28). The services, according to Moffett, were very special. Saudi Arabia's King Ibn Saud had demanded an extra $6,000,000 a year from Aramco in 1941, on the threat of tearing up its multi-billion-dollar concession in his country. Moffett claimed that he had persuaded Franklin D. Roosevelt to propose that Ibn Saud's sagging treasury be propped up with money from a $425 million U.S. loan to Britain.

Last week Federal Judge Edward A. Conger, who had heard the case, decided that the jury had been too generous. He set aside the verdict, held that Jimmy Moffett had not proved that it was his words that had saved Aramco. Besides, he said, such services were "the kind that the law says may not be compensated for because they are against 'public policy.' "

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