Litigation

Two Hundred Million Here, Three Hundred Million There -- Soon You're Talking About Real Money

By Bruce Nye

A Los Angeles jury kicked off its Halloween weekend by clobbering Boeing with a $236.86 million punitive damage award in favor of ICO Global Communications. This was on top of the $370.6 million in compensatory damages awarded last week. ICO's lawyers had previously expressed some slight disappointment in the parsimonious compensatory award in this case, which at its root seems to be a breach of contract dispute.

In its press release, ICO Global's CEO is quoted:  "We appreciate the sacrifices made by the jury in performing their civic duty over this lengthy trial."  I bet.

No press release on Boeing's site so far.  The statement when it comes, of course, will read:  "We are shocked by the jury's verdict, and are confident that we will be vindicated on appeal."

As California Punitive Damages An Exemplary Blog points out, if somehow Boeing is not vindicated on appeal and the award sticks, this will be the sixth highest punitive award to do so.

Full post as published by CalBizLit on November 03, 2008 (boomark / email).