Breach of Fiduciary Duty & Fraud
12/21/98 - $454,296,000
The Verdicts and Judgment were affirmed on appeal and paid in April 2003 – over $640 million was collected.
Six Flags Over Georgia, LLC, Six Flags Fund, LTD, (L.P.), and George DeRoy, as Trustee of the Six Flags Claim Trust v. Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P., Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, Six Flags Theme Parks, Inc., and Six Flags Over Georgia, Inc., Superior Court of Gwinnett County, Georgia. The verdict awarded damages to the original investor of the limited partnership and to the general partnership in Six Flags Over Georgia amusement park against Time Warner affiliates (including Warner Bros.) for breach of fiduciary duty in Time Warner’s management of the park between 1991 and 1997 when Time Warner acted as general partner. Plaintiffs proved a deliberate scheme to depress the value of the Georgia park by failing to install major rides and make appropriate capital investment. Plaintiffs proved that Time Warner took assets belonging to the partnership and used them for its own financial gain. The jury found by special interrogatory that Defendants acted with specific intent to cause harm so that the $250,000 cap on punitive damages under Georgia’s Tort Reform statute was avoided. The verdict includes $197 million compensatory and $257 million punitive damages totaling $454 million.
At the time, this verdict represented the largest compensatory damages verdict, and the largest punitive damages verdict, and the largest total verdict in Georgia history, surpassing the previous record set by the Butler Firm - the $105 million verdict in Moseley v. General Motors, in February 1993.
The Time Warner defendants never made any settlement offer. The pretrial proceedings were notable for the attempt by Defendants to hide virtually all of the damaging documents under false claims of attorney-client privilege and work product. Plaintiffs were successful in defeating those claims, and getting the damaging documents. Defendants appealed the verdict and the Georgia Court of Appeals twice affirmed the judgment in its entirety. On April 21, 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari and the judgment was paid and satisfied in full by defendants. With interest, the collected, paid judgment exceeded $640 million, making it one of the largest verdicts ever affirmed and collected in its entirety.
Plaintiffs were represented by James E. Butler, Jr. and George W. Fryhofer III of the Butler Firm, Gerald Davidson of Mahaffey Pickens Tucker LLP, and Mickey Mixson and Mike Terry of Bondurant Mixson & Elmore.