Ovitz
NEW YORK -- The Disney shareholder trial hadn't resumed for five minutes Tuesday when tempers flared over missing correspondence between Michael Eisner and Michael Ovitz. Meanwhile, noted L.A. trial attorney Larry Feldman testified Ovitz could have successfully sued the Mouse House for hundreds of millions of dollars if fired for cause.
Feldman, hired by Ovitz as an expert witness in the trial, said he hasn't seen one shred of evidence showing Ovitz did anything amounting to gross negligence or gross malfeasance during his stint as Disney prexy.
Ovitz received a $140 million severance package that shareholders are now fighting to get back, saying Ovitz should have been fired outright.
"By doing it the way they did, Disney avoided a very serious, ugly lawsuit," said Feldman, who won a $15 million judgment against the Mouse House on behalf of the Agency for the Performing Arts in 1992. Feldman also successfully represented Lions Gate Entertainment CEO Jon Feltheimer in a lawsuit against former employer Sony Pictures Entertainment.
As the Disney trial resumed after a holiday break, a bit of drama ensued in the Delaware courtroom when Chancery Court Judge William B. Chandler III ordered Disney to submit an affidavit saying why it couldn't produce two memos between Ovitz and Eisner that were cited in a recent New Yorker article by journalist James Stewart.
Attorney Steve Schulman, representing Disney shareholders, said his side has been trying to get the documents for months, but assumed the memos no longer existed when Disney and other defendants failed to produce them.
Chandler directed Disney to do another search.
In the first memo -- written in January 1996 -- Eisner accused Ovitz of trying to undercut him by wishing then-Disney board member Sid Bass a happy birthday, according to the New Yorker article. "You are squeezing the toothpaste from the middle. It's one way to get paste, but not the way for me."
The second missing memo was sent to Eisner by Ovitz in June 1996. In it, Ovitz complained he had nothing to do and ridiculed the idea of calling the exec offices the Team Disney building.
"You're a team destroyer, not a team builder," wrote Ovitz, who also accused Eisner of bad-mouthing everyone he had worked with over the years, including Barry Diller at Paramount and Frank Wells at Disney.
Feldman is among a tiny batch of expert witnesses taking the stand this week. The trial portion will then end, although a final ruling in the case could be months away.
Feldman's testimony was designed to rebut that of Yale Law School professor John J. Donohue, who testified earlier in the trial that the Disney board would have been justified in firing Ovitz for gross negligence or malfeasance.
Feldman returns to the stand today, while Donohue returns later in the week.
Contact Pamela McClintock at
pamela.mcclintock@variety.com