Laurence Price Testifies of Snub by Multimillionaire Father

Laurence Price, son of multimillionaire businessman Sol Price, told a Superior Court jury Monday that he felt ignored by his father and that he was particularly hurt when his father refused to attend a party after his son’s bar mitzvah.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Laurence Price said. “I cried for hours and hours, and, when the rabbi came over, I cried on his shoulder, in the bedroom. It was the most emotionally high day and emotionally low day. I don’t want to ever have to go through that again.”

Price, 43, is suing his father for $100 million for emotional distress he claims his father caused by interfering with the raising of Laurence’s sons, Jonas, 17, and Benjamin, 15. He is represented by Los Angeles attorney Marvin Mitchelson.

He said he still suffers from the bar mitzvah incident, which occurred in January, 1985. He said his father attended the ceremony at a temple in the Del Cerro neighborhood, but refused to attend the party at Laurence’s home afterward.

“It still affects me today,” he said. “I don’t know how you take it back.”

Most Serious Rift

Laurence said his father also interfered by helping to buy Jonas a car without consulting him and by taking Jonas on a trip to view the campus of Stanford University without his knowledge.

Although Laurence and Sol Price were at odds periodically for decades, the most serious rift occurred about three weeks before the bar mitzvah episode, according to Laurence’s testimony. About 11:30 one night in December, 1984, Laurence’s sons, who were living with their mother, telephoned him and begged him to come and get them, he said. He went over to pick them up and took them to his house.

He described them as “distraught,” but added that he was never able to determine why they were so upset. Laurence and his wife, Emma, were divorced and she had been awarded physical custody of the boys, although they had joint legal custody, which meant that he had a say in major decisions about their lives.

About a week later, Laurence said, he got a telephone call from his father, who said, “Larry, take those boys back to their mother or I’m going to take away your business and disinherit you.”

Laurence told the jury he was “enraged” and called his father back later to tell him “never to threaten me again.”

To give in, he said, “would be like abandoning my children. I felt I was abandoned by my father. If I had to lose everything, I would lose everything.” The younger boy still lives with Laurence, but the older one is living with his mother.

Sol and Laurence have spoken only once since then, he said, although on cross-examination by Sol Price’s lawyer, Gerald McMahon, Laurence conceded that, about six months later his father forgave him a $20,000 loan and continued to give gifts to the children.

About eight months later, Laurence Price lost his lease to operate a tire installation business at his father’s Price Club discount warehouses. Sol Price had set Laurence up in the business in 1978 after Laurence had been out of work for two years.

Particularly Galling

Laurence quit a job at the Price Club in 1976 in part because he thought the $23,000 salary he was making was too low contrasted with that of a cousin, who was making $35,000.

Particularly galling, however, was the attitude of his older brother, Robert, who was paid $40,000 a year as president of the Price Club, Laurence said. “Robert had very little patience with me,” Laurence said, adding that his brother sometimes ordered him out of his (Robert’s) office after meetings by saying, “That’s it. Get out.”

“I don’t believe anyone has the right to do that to anyone else,” Laurence said.

The final straw, he said, was when Robert ordered him to get a hanger for his coat and a trash can for his office, Laurence said. “Nobody needs this kind of trouble,” Laurence said. “It was just two frustrating.”

For the next two years, he said, he looked for business opportunities and was supported by his father until his father came up with the tire installation idea, he said.