News

Trial Victory in Jarwick Developments, Inc. v. The Wilf Family

January 31, 2014

In one of the longest-running legal disputes in New Jersey history, Price Gielen and Cindy Leppert successfully represented the lead plaintiff in Jarwick Developments, Inc. v. Wilf, a high-profile lawsuit against the owners of the Minnesota Vikings.  The plaintiffs and defendants are each partners in a partnership that developed and operated a large apartment complex.  For more than twenty years, the defendants had wrongfully excluded the Firm’s client from the partnership and looted the project for their own benefit. After a two-year bench trial involving highly sophisticated legal claims, the judge found the defendants liable on all claims, including civil RICO offenses, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and breaches of the partnership agreement and partnership law. The court awarded the Firm’s client approximately $13 million in compensatory damages, $18 million in prejudgment interest, $20 million in punitive damages, and more than $10 million to reimburse our client’s legal fees and litigation expenses, for total award of approximately $62 million. The judge also ordered that the partnership be dissolved and the project sold, with our client to receive 25% of the net proceeds.