Kentucky

$101 million dollar verdict rendered against Ventas in federal court.  Story by Andrew Wolfson of Courier Journal:

Line between competition and ethics at heart of record award



By Andrew Wolfson ? awolfson@courier-journal.com ? September 14, 2009



The $101 million verdict returned Sept. 4 by a Louisville jury for Ventas Inc. shows that ethics and rules do matter in business, a lawyer for the real-estate investment trust says.

The verdict, which came after a nearly three-week trial in U.S. District Court, was one of the largest ever returned in Kentucky, according to news accounts and the Kentucky Trial Court Review, which reports civil verdicts statewide.

The jury found that one of Ventas' main rivals, Long Beach, Calif.-based HCP Inc., sabotaged Ventas' deal to buy a Canadian operator of assisted living centers by offering a higher bid, even though it knew the offer was invalid.

Ventas ultimately bought Sunrise Senior Living Real Estate Trust in the spring of 2007, but only after it had to sweeten its original $1.8 billion bid by 10 percent.

David Bradford, Ventas' lead counsel, said in an interview that the case showed ?there is a right way to compete and a wrong way to compete? and that ?while we value our competitive system, it is not ?anything goes.'?

* * * click on heading for rest of story AND a list of the biggest verdicts in Kentuckyu.