Attorneys for British banker Gary Klesch have asked a federal appeals court to order a new trial in his lawsuit against Liberty Media Corp. over a failed venture to buy German cable-television networks, saying a judge’s mistake denied Klesch an award potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Klesch had filed suit seeking at least $611 million in damages from Liberty, saying the Douglas County-based holding company had gone behind his back to negotiate a separate deal with German cable operator Deutsche Telekom. In September 2004, a federal court jury in Denver denied Klesch’s claims, saying Liberty was justified in breaching its contract with Klesch & Co. Ltd.
Klesch’s attorney, Michael Bowe, told the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday that the jurors ruled against Klesch because the trial judge improperly told them they could not consider a June 2001 document that updated terms of their partnership agreement.
“What (the judge) told them was that he was concluding Liberty Media had not breached obligations it had and had not breached a confidentiality agreement,” Bowe told a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit.
