Ladd Co. wins case against Warner
Oscar-winning producer Alan Ladd Jr. and his business partner won a $3.2-million verdict Thursday in their four-year legal fight with Warner Bros. over fees from TV sales for such films as “Body Heat,” the “Police Academy” comedies and “Chariots of Fire.”
A Los Angeles Superior Court jury ruled that the studio shortchanged Ladd and Jay Kanter’s Ladd Co. in divvying up proceeds from worldwide television deals for their movies. Other titles in the suit included “Night Shift,” “Tequila Sunrise,” “Blade Runner” and “Outland.”
“I’m thrilled,” Ladd said. “I hope that other people will start doing the same thing -- taking on the studios instead of being afraid of the big, bad bosses.”
Defense attorney Michael Bergman said he would ask Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ricardo Torres to toss out the verdict.
Bergman said jurors ignored Torres’ instructions by awarding damages stemming from sales before August 1999, four years before Ladd Co. filed suit, despite a statute of limitations. The verdict covered sales dating to 1992, Bergman said.
Added Warner Bros. spokesman Scott Rowe: “While we are disappointed by the jury’s verdict, we understand their confusion over damages. We will now look at this entire proceeding and hope to rectify this erroneous decision at this level or on appeal.”
Ladd, 69, is the son of late “Shane” star Alan Ladd. He is a veteran studio executive, serving as president of 20th Century Fox when “Star Wars” was released in 1977 and later serving as chairman of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the early 1990s.
Ladd earned an Oscar as a producer of Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart,” which was named best picture of 1995. He remains busy: Ladd Co.’s thriller “Gone, Baby, Gone” is coming out this fall.
Ladd Co. alleged that when Warner Bros. sold packages of several films to TV outlets, the Time Warner Inc. division “internally manipulated” the value of those deals that was allocated to each individual title for its own benefit. For example, the value of the British Olympics drama “Chariots of Fire” as 1981’s Academy Award-winning best picture was not fully recognized by the studio, the plaintiffs alleged.
“Our clients were deprived what they were owed,” said plaintiffs’ attorney John Gatti.
During the four-week trial, Torres had dismissed a claim involving the science-fiction classic “Blade Runner” because the parties had reached a previous settlement covering that film.
Another claim involving the omission of credits for Ladd Co. on several DVDs also was tossed out, as was an antitrust allegation.
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