Bayer v. Beran
New York Supreme Court
49 N.Y.S.2d 2 (1944)
The directors (defendants) of Celanese Corporation of America decided, after reviewing advertising-department studies and consulting a radio expert and an advertising agency, to begin a new radio advertising campaign, something the company had never done before, with advertising commitments cancellable at any time and renewed by board vote after a year and a half. One of the singers on the chosen program happened to be the wife of director Camille Dreyfus. The plaintiff sued, alleging the entire campaign was really a scheme to subsidize Mrs. Dreyfus's singing career and provide her a platform for her talents.
Whether a director necessarily breaches his duty of loyalty to a corporation by advertising the corporation's product on a program on which the director's wife is a singer.