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Court orders Samaha, Franchise to pay $121.5m Ross Johnson in Los Angeles 18 August 2004 A federal judge in Santa Ana, California, entered judgment yesterday (17 Aug) against Elie Samaha, Franchise Pictures, and 18 Franchise one-off production companies for $121.5m. The judgment, pending post-trial motions and appeals, marks the conclusion of the four-year legal battle between Franchise and its former co-production partner, Intertainment Licensing GmbH. Judge Alicemarie Stotler ruled that Franchise, Samaha, and the production companies that hold the copyrights to such films as Get Carter and The Whole Nine Yards are jointly and severally liable for the $106m compensatory and punitive jury awards to Intertainment given at the conclusion of a nine-week fraud and breach of contract trial in June 2004. Judge Stotler also awarded $15.1m in pre-trial interest to Intertainment. Intertainment lawyer Scott Edelman said he would immediately seek to collect the judgment. According to the judge’s ruling, any monies that cannot be collected from the Franchise films’ copyright holding companies can be collected directly from Samaha. Next up for Intertainment is the January 2005 arbitration scheduled between Intertainment, Franchise lender Comerica Bank and Franchise completion bonding companies Film Finances and Worldwide Film Completion. Intertainment is claiming that the above litigants conspired with Franchise to defraud Intertainment in Franchise’s budget-pumping scheme, and is asking for $100m in damages. Franchise attorney Richard Schirtzer responded angrily to a claim in a story on Screendaily.com (16 Aug) by a former Franchise executive that Samaha, in order to get out from under the crushing monetary judgment in his fraud trail, would have little choice but to testify against Comerica in the upcoming arbitration. “Elie Samaha is not the kind of man to turn,” Schirtzer said. “He’s not going to testify against the bank.” |
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| aus der Diskussion: | Nachrichten zum Prozeß Intertainment Franchise |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | 11up (19.08.04 14:19:25) |
| Beitrag: | 3,117 von 3,335 (ID:14085226) |
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