A Decade of Defiance: A Daughter's Story of her Father's Fight for Fairness

At thirteen years old, sitting twenty feet from the bench of the United States Supreme Court, Suzanne Perkins watched her father’s fight for fairness unfold before the Court as he took on one of the most powerful corporations in America.

She didn’t yet understand the law.
But she understood that something wasn’t fair.

This is a story about courage, legacy, and the quiet, relentless fight for fairness—
not after the damage is done,
but before.

She grew up under that cloud—the kind of tension that slowly chiseled away the place of joy.

A Decade of Defiance is the true story of a small oil distributor who challenged Standard Oil of California in a ten-year case that reached the highest court in the land—and the daughter who grew up in the shadow of that fight.

What began as a business dispute became something far more consequential: a battle over fairness, power, and the hidden systems that quietly tried shape who wins—and who doesn’t.It exposes how a large corporation engineered a system to control distribution—deciding, behind the scenes, who survived and who didn’t.

Today, this landmark antitrust case—Perkins Oil Company v. Standard Oil of California—is still studied in law schools. But what it cost a family—and what the Supreme Court's ruling continues to mean for small businesses across America—is the story rarely told.

Told through Suzanne’s deeply personal lens, this story reveals not only what her father fought, but what it cost—
to a business,
to a family,
and to the belief that fairness was something you used to be able to rely on.

What was ingrained in her during those years—fairness, truth, and resilience—never left her.
It continues to guide her own fight for seniors and their families today.

Perfect for readers interested in:

• True legal stories
• Supreme Court cases
• Small Business
• David vs. Goliath business battles
• Memoirs about family, legacy, and resilience