Farrell v. Farrell, 2013 Ark. App. LEXIS 33 (Jan. 23, 2013) The wife appealed the trial court’s decision to assign all interest in the family businesses to the husband, which, she claimed, left her with a shortfall of $4.4 million. The husband owned a 19.4% interest in two sets of closely held family businesses. The  Continue Reading »

Brighton Collectibles, Inc. v. RK Texas Leather Mfg., 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24644 (Feb. 12, 2013) The plaintiff’s expert claimed $115 million in damages from lost sales, but the defendants argued the testimony was inadmissible under Daubert for many reasons, including his reliance on a theory that had no grounding in “the real world facts  Continue Reading »

Russell v. Russell, 2013 Ark. App. LEXIS 151 (Feb. 27, 2013) The husband challenged the trial court’s valuation of a family business, claiming there was no credible evidence to show it had a “fair market value” independent of the company’s founder—his stepfather. At divorce, the husband and wife agreed on the division of all property  Continue Reading »

In a post-trial bid to upset the outcome in Liberty Media Corp. v. Vivendi Universal, S.A., 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19485 (Feb. 12, 2013), Vivendi argued that no jury “should have been permitted to base a verdict” on the unreliable loss causation and damages testimony Liberty’s expert gave. In particular, Vivendi took aim at the  Continue Reading »

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals considered how to measure damages for a facility with no real market when it reviewed the district court’s $3.8 million award to the plaintiff related to a destroyed waste treatment plant. The defendants owned and operated a Texas oil refinery that contained a third party’s waste treatment plant. After  Continue Reading »