The Victorian Liberal Party has followed through on a threat to launch legal action against the directors of the Cormack Foundation in a bid to seek control of a $70 million pot of electoral funding.

Documents were lodged in the Federal Court on Wednesday, a day after the party said it would go to court after trying for more than a year to resolve its dispute with the Melbourne businessmen who control the foundation, which has bankrolled the state Liberals since the 1980s.

Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger. Credit:Justin McManus

Liberal party trustees Richard Alston, Alan Stockdale and Russell Hannan filed a suit against the Cormack Foundation's eight directors who include Rupert Murdoch's brother-in-law John Calvert-Jones, former Reserve Bank board member and Business Council of Australia president Hugh Morgan and former ANZ chairman Charles Goode.

The row, described as a "family argument", is over ownership of the $70 million investment fund, which was founded with the proceeds from the sale of Liberal-owned radio station 3XY in 1988.