WILMINGTON, Del. – A letter about former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd’s relationship with a female contractor must be made public, a court has ruled. Hurd’s lawyers petitioned for continued secrecy.

The letter to Hurd, from lawyer Gloria Allred, concerned “allegedly inappropriate conduct” by Hurd toward Jodie Fisher, the Delaware Supreme Court said.

Shareholder Ernesto Espinoza sought the letter along with company books and records in his lawsuit aimed at investigating possible corporate wrongdoing.

“We conclude that the Court of Chancery acted well within its discretion in holding that the Allred letter (as redacted) should be unsealed,” the justices wrote.

The justices said that “although the letter goes into embarrassing detail about Hurd’s behavior, it does not describe any intimate conversations or conduct.”

The decision came after arguments in Dover on Oct. 12 challenging a ruling in March by Delaware Chancery Court Judge Donald Parsons that most of the letter should be released.

The letter contains accusations of sexual harassment and details of Hurd’s alleged advances toward Fisher and her rejection of them, according to Parsons’ ruling.

Hurd, now president of software maker Oracle Corp., resigned from Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP in August 2010 after a company investigation determined he violated its standards of business conduct.

HP said it didn’t find that Hurd had violated the company’s sexual-harassment policy. The company granted him a severance package of as much as $40 million, according to court papers.

The letter was sent to Hurd by Allred in an attempt to arrange private mediation with Fisher. It includes allegations that Hurd misused corporate funds to “wine and dine Fisher” and leaked potential non-public information about the company to her, Parsons said in his ruling.