Doris Day's husband died in 1968 and she learned her lawyer and her husband had lost her earnings; a court awarded the couple $26,396,511

Martin Melcher, Doris Day's third husband and business manager, died on 20 April 1968. Day then found that her money was gone. Attorney Jerome Rosenthal had been the couple's sole lawyer from 1952 and, from 1956 until they fired him in 1968, also their accountant, business manager and investment adviser. After a nonjury trial from March to August 1974, a Los Angeles court entered judgment on 31 March 1975 for the Melchers of $26,396,511, including $1,000,000 in punitive damages. It found legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud and abuse of process. The court found the couple lost over $4,000,000 in oil and gas ventures Rosenthal promoted and over $3,000,000 in hotels in which he had a secret interest. It found Rosenthal collected over $2,500,000 in fees and that more than $2,200,000 of the couple's funds in his trust account could not be accounted for. It found Melcher's use of Day's funds without her knowledge cost her almost $3,000,000. News reports gave an earlier 1974 award of $22.8 million^†. The Court of Appeal affirmed on 8 August 1985. Reference sources report the California Supreme Court declined review in October 1985 and the US Supreme Court in April 1986, and a 1979 settlement with Rosenthal's insurers of about $6 million^†. Day said she believed Melcher "simply trusted the wrong person."