Witness Indicates Clients Knew of $2-Million Offer

Key testimony of four people who accused their former lawyer of malpractice for failing to notify them of a $2-million settlement offer in a 1981 case was contradicted Wednesday by a surprise witness in Orange County Superior Court.

The witness, Stuart M. Klein, who owns a Santa Ana scrap metal yard, testified Wednesday that two days after the offer was first made, he was told about it by one of his employees, Miguel (Mike) Castro, father of one of the plaintiffs.

“Mike said there was a $2-million offer and that it wasn’t enough,” Klein said. “They felt they should have $5 million.” Klein said he did not know if “they” referred to the plaintiffs, Greene, or both.

The offer was made by Ford Motor Co. just before jury deliberations began on July 30, 1981, in a product liability case. The plaintiffs, represented by R. Browne Greene, had claimed that a gas tank in the cab of a pickup truck was defectively designed, causing a fire in a 1976 roll-over accident that seriously burned three people and killed an 8-day-old infant. A jury ultimately found in favor of Ford.

Represented by attorney Melvin M. Belli, the four plaintiffs then sued Greene, claiming he failed to notify them of the $2-million offer. Belli and Greene have feuded in the past, and the current trial pitting the two well-known and highly successful lawyers has attracted a wide following.

Testifying on his own behalf Wednesday, Greene appeared to contradict an earlier sworn statement in which he said he told Ford’s lawyer before the verdict that the offer had been rejected. Wednesday, Greene backed away from that statement, testifying that he told Ford’s lawyer only that he was recommending that his clients reject the offer.