Santa Ana Jury Awards 2 Lawyers 3% of Thriving Baseball Card Firm

An Orange County Superior Court jury on Wednesday unanimously agreed with two local attorneys who have long insisted that they own a 3% share in Upper Deck Co., the fast-growing baseball-card company.

The 12-member Santa Ana jury deliberated for more than a day before determining that Upper Deck executives gave the 3% share to attorney Andrew Passante Jr. in 1988. Passante subsequently agreed to split the 3% stake with Andrew J. Prendiville, said Vincent J. Bartolotta Jr., who represented Passante and Prendiville.

A spokesman for Upper Deck would not comment on Wednesday’s verdict. Upper Deck President Richard P. McWilliam previously denied that Passante had been granted the 3% share.

Bartolotta said evidence presented during the trial proved that Passante received the 3% share in 1988, in large part for work he handled while serving as Upper Deck’s first corporate attorney. Passante “was there at a critical point in the company’s history,” Bartolotta said. “He arranged for a $100,000 loan that literally saved the company.”

Passante agreed to split the 3% share with Prendiville, another attorney who helped arrange the loan, Bartolotta said.

“Jurors determined that (Upper Deck) agreed to hold the 3% for Tony Passante,” Bartolotta said. “Now the only issue is what that 3% is worth.”

Jurors on Friday will begin deliberations on the value of that 3% stake, Bartolotta said.

Privately held Upper Deck, based in Carlsbad, does not release profit or revenue figures. However, the company redefined the $1-billion-plus collectible industry with its line of high-quality trading cards.

In 1991, Upper Deck moved from a cramped facility in Yorba Linda to a new, $12-million plant in Carlsbad. That same year, Upper Deck was named Inc. magazine’s manufacturing entrepreneur of the year in Orange County.