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Disney Wants Verdict Overturned
Walt Disney Asks Court to Overturn $240 Million Verdict in Sports Complex Case
By MIKE SCHNEIDER
AP Business Writer
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- The Walt Disney Co. [NYSE
IS - news] has asked an appellate court to overturn a $240 million verdict in which jurors decided the company stole an idea for a Walt Disney World sports complex from two businessmen.
In a brief filed Monday in the Fifth District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach, Disney attorneys argued that the verdict should either be reversed or a new trial ordered because of alleged trial errors.
The Orange County Circuit Court jury a year ago found Disney liable for misappropriating a trade secret, conspiracy to misappropriate and fraud.
During the trial, attorneys for Nicholas Stracick and Edward Russell argued that Disney stole business plans, sketches and models. But the appellate court earlier had decided that arguments could only be limited to conceptual similarities between the businessmen's plans and Disney's Wide World of Sports complex, said Disney attorneys in the appellate brief.
In addition, the case was tried past the allowable statute of limitations, there was nothing novel about an idea for a sports complex and defense attorneys were allowed to make an improper closing argument in which they accused Disney of preying on ``little guys,'' according to the brief.
Post-trial evidence also calls into question a meeting Stracick and Russell claim they had with Disney's chief architect, the brief said. The architect, Wing Chao, after the trial was able to produce a hotel bill and passport showing he had been in France at the time of the alleged meeting. The meeting was a crucial component of the misappropriation case.
Disney attorneys also argued in the brief that the damages were calculated improperly based on testimony from a plaintiffs' expert who estimated that attendance at the sports complex would double over 20 years and that the value was between $468 million and $1.07 billion.
The actual value of the complex is negative $5.6 million, Disney lawyers said.
``Undisputed facts established that (the complex) is losing money, that attendance could not increase due to capacity limitations and that Disney does not intend to make any capital expenditures to expand (the complex),'' the brief said.
Willie Gary, an attorney for Stracick and Russell, didn't immediately return a phone call to his Stuart office.
Jurors awarded damages to Stracick, a retired baseball umpire from Buffalo, N.Y., and Russell, an architect from Fonthill, Ontario.
The men testified during a five-week trial that they pitched their idea for a sports complex to Disney officials in the late 1980s and that Disney rejected the idea in 1989.
Four years later, the company announced it would build Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World. The complex opened in 1997 and is the spring training home to the Atlanta Braves.
Walt Disney Asks Court to Overturn $240 Million Verdict in Sports Complex Case
By MIKE SCHNEIDER
AP Business Writer
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- The Walt Disney Co. [NYSE
IS - news] has asked an appellate court to overturn a $240 million verdict in which jurors decided the company stole an idea for a Walt Disney World sports complex from two businessmen.In a brief filed Monday in the Fifth District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach, Disney attorneys argued that the verdict should either be reversed or a new trial ordered because of alleged trial errors.
The Orange County Circuit Court jury a year ago found Disney liable for misappropriating a trade secret, conspiracy to misappropriate and fraud.
During the trial, attorneys for Nicholas Stracick and Edward Russell argued that Disney stole business plans, sketches and models. But the appellate court earlier had decided that arguments could only be limited to conceptual similarities between the businessmen's plans and Disney's Wide World of Sports complex, said Disney attorneys in the appellate brief.
In addition, the case was tried past the allowable statute of limitations, there was nothing novel about an idea for a sports complex and defense attorneys were allowed to make an improper closing argument in which they accused Disney of preying on ``little guys,'' according to the brief.
Post-trial evidence also calls into question a meeting Stracick and Russell claim they had with Disney's chief architect, the brief said. The architect, Wing Chao, after the trial was able to produce a hotel bill and passport showing he had been in France at the time of the alleged meeting. The meeting was a crucial component of the misappropriation case.
Disney attorneys also argued in the brief that the damages were calculated improperly based on testimony from a plaintiffs' expert who estimated that attendance at the sports complex would double over 20 years and that the value was between $468 million and $1.07 billion.
The actual value of the complex is negative $5.6 million, Disney lawyers said.
``Undisputed facts established that (the complex) is losing money, that attendance could not increase due to capacity limitations and that Disney does not intend to make any capital expenditures to expand (the complex),'' the brief said.
Willie Gary, an attorney for Stracick and Russell, didn't immediately return a phone call to his Stuart office.
Jurors awarded damages to Stracick, a retired baseball umpire from Buffalo, N.Y., and Russell, an architect from Fonthill, Ontario.
The men testified during a five-week trial that they pitched their idea for a sports complex to Disney officials in the late 1980s and that Disney rejected the idea in 1989.
Four years later, the company announced it would build Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World. The complex opened in 1997 and is the spring training home to the Atlanta Braves.
