Marriott and the H-Corp

You may recall earlier Mormon blog forays into the issue of Brother Marriott’s porn-mongering, and his “corporate fidiciary duty” justification of it.  It was a spectacular blow-up that lead to this deletion, retraction, and apology:  “We particularly regret that J.W. Marriott became the target of personal insult.”  The particular insult, if I recall correctly, was “pimp.”

Anyhow, Julie Smith took a second run at it a little later.  I got pretty worked up on that thread, mostly fulminating against the legal argument that Marriott Corp. owed a fiduciary duty to its shareholders to continue to offer Logjammin’ on pay-per-view.  Here’s where the argument was initially made on that thread, and my rebuttals here, here, here, here, and here.  (Like I said, I got worked up.)

All that was brought to mind when reading my latest copy of California Lawyer magazine and coming across this piece about the movement to introduce a form of incorporation called the H-Corp.  ”[A] California H-Corporation—a hybrid nonprofit/for-profit entity—would specify in its articles of incorporation that management and its board of directors can work for social or environmental objectives as well as pursue the company’s financial goals.” 

So if this catches on, doesn’t Marriott become an H-Corp and get out of the porn business?  If they don’t, isn’t Marriott’s fiduciary duty justification shown to be a sham?

(To reiterate my earlier argument, I don’t believe that abandoning porn now is inconsistent with their fiduciary duties in their current business form.)