Lowenstein Sandler secured a complete victory in the Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division on behalf of its clients, Jarwick Developments, Ada Reichmann, and Rachel Halpern as executrix of the estate of Josef Halpern, against the billionaire Wilf family and other defendants in one of longest running cases in the State of New Jersey.
The dispute, which began in 1992, centered on factual findings and legal conclusions made by the Chancery Division over the improper use of partnership funds by the defendants: members of the billionaire Wilf family, who own the Minnesota Vikings football team. The Chancery Division had previously found the defendants liable for RICO-related and other charges, including taking excessive payments from their partnership with the plaintiffs; improperly collecting management fees or expenses; incorrectly recording interest payments on related-party loans; using partnership funds to pay salaries, benefits, and end-of-the month bonuses to individuals who worked for Wilf-related entities but did little or no work for the partnership; wrongly using partnership funds for rent and other expenses for defendants' headquarters and other office locations; and overcharging the partnership for insurance expenses, legal expenses, advertising costs, and other expenses.
These findings were upheld on appeal in 2018. However, the Appellate Division remanded the matter to the trial court to recalculate damages and attorney’s fees based on statute of limitations grounds.
On remand, the Chancery Division, again, ruled substantially in favor of Jarwick and the other plaintiffs, awarding them $12,624,516 in compensatory damages; $33,689,845 in prejudgment interest; $11,604,380.76 in attorney's fees and costs; $10,728,936 in RICO damages; and post judgment interest.
In the most recent appeal, the defendants claimed that the judiciary had treated them unfairly throughout the litigation, the special adjudicator assigned to the matter had a disqualifying conflict of interest, and the Chancery Division judge had erred in awarding attorney's fees, punitive damages, and prejudgment interest after the limited remand.
The appeals court rejected all of these arguments, affirming the Chancery Division’s decision in all respects.
The appellate decision cites the Chancery Division’s opinion that there was “overwhelming trial evidence and testimony to support [the] conclusion that Zygmunt Wilf was the ‘master chef’ of the misdeeds perpetrated against plaintiffs and Mark and Leonard Wilf were not only complicit in Zygmunt's misdeeds but also responsible for their own actions and inactions related to the partnership.” It reiterates the statement of the presiding judge, who said: “I have never seen a case that consisted of such pervasive and monumental breaches [and] wrongdoings as I [have] seen in this case.”
This latest decision again upholds the trial evidence and testimony finding that “defendants stole partnership funds and then attempted to conceal their misdeeds.” In ruling that the damages, interest and fees were properly calculated and not excessive, the opinion further states that there were “multiple instances wherein these individuals misappropriated partnership funds, including deliberate and overt acts as well as failing to act or question the disbursement of partnership funds.”
The Lowenstein team included Michael B. Himmel and Wayne Fang.
