The Harris family's long-running court case against Wachovia Corp. is closed.

The lawsuit ended after N.C. Business Court Judge John Jolly dismissed the case and Cameron and Dee-Dee Harris did not appeal before the case formally closed in May.

It concludes a nearly two-year dispute between the former Charlotte-based bank and one of the city's wealthiest families over the plummeting value of Wachovia shares.

"The Harrises have accepted the judge's decision not to hear the case and are focusing their time and energy on family, friends and their individual successful businesses," a spokeswoman for the family said Thursday.

The Harrises, who had a hand in many of Charlotte's biggest real estate projects, sued Wachovia and some of its top executives in 2009. The couple alleged the bank and its officials misled them before the bank's 2008 collapse and sale to Wells Fargo & Co., causing the family to lose millions.

They argued they would have sold their shares as early as 2007 but were persuaded not to after public statements by and personal conversations with then-chief executive Ken Thompson and other bank leaders.

Jolly dismissed the case, saying in a February court order the Harrises were not entitled to recover the lost value of their shares, partly because the bank had no special duty to the family over other shareholders.

If the Harrises would have received and acted on information the general public did not have, they would have profited at the expense of others who bought their shares, the judge wrote.

"At best such a result would be unfair and improper," he said. "More likely, it also would have violated a host of securities laws."

Wells Fargo spokeswoman Mary Eshet said Thursday, "We are pleased the matter has been dismissed."

Part of the dispute ended last August, when the bank said it would not challenge an arbitrator's decision that essentially eliminated a majority of the debt the Harrises owed Wachovia.

Wachovia had filed separate claims against the family over millions in loans the Harrises owed, but the strategy backfired: The case went to arbitration, and the arbitrator ruled the Harrises' default was partly the bank's fault.

The Harrises still owed the bank $13 million, but the arbitrator's ruling cut their debt substantially, determining Wachovia owed the couple $10 million.