Getty Contract Dispute Gets Down to the Plane Facts
At the heart of the matter is a Boeing 727 jet, and a real nice one at that.
It has a huge galley for cooks to prepare world-class meals, a combination conference and sitting room, a dining room and a master suite with two bedrooms featuring king-size beds and showers.
Price tag: $8.6 million.
That is what Gordon Getty, son of the late oil baron J. Paul Getty, and his wife, Ann, paid for the customized aircraft in 1986.
But a trial that got under way Monday in Torrance Superior Court will determine if they should have paid a world-renown airplane broker, Landis Carr, a $400,000 commission for his help in finding the jet.
On the surface it sounds like a routine breach of contract case, but throw in the wealthy Gettys and an aircraft broker whose clientele has included John F. Kennedy and Frank Sinatra, and it raises some concerns for the players.
The suggestion that Gordon Getty, whose personal wealth has been estimated at $30 million to $50 million, would skip out on a relatively inexpensive commission concerned Getty attorney Robert S. Span.
“You are not going to give them a break on the one hand and you’re not going to penalize them because they have some money and (you think) maybe they should pay, right?” Span asked jurors.
They all nodded in agreement.
At issue is a claim by Carr’s former employer, Torrance-based Garrett Corp., that the Gettys cheated on an oral deal to pay Carr a commission and conspired with the owner of the plane, Revlon Corp., to cover it up by drafting a sale contract that made no mention of payment to brokers.
Carr, who says he has also found jets for Wayne Newton, Sammy Davis Jr. and other luminaries, secured the jet for the Gettys after a nationwide search of private 727s up for sale, said J. Michael Crowe, attorney for the Garrett Corp.
The Gettys had asked a retired airplane pilot, Robert Moorehead, the father of Ann Getty’s personal secretary, to help them find a plane. He, in turn, contacted Carr in 1982. Carr searched for a plane off and on until 1986, when the Gettys decided to go forward with the purchase of a plane, Crowe said.
At first, Carr found a Gulfstream 3, but Gordon Getty turned it down because he did not feel he could stand up comfortably in the aircraft.
Carr then found the Revlon 727 and, with Moorehead, began negotiating with the corporation.
When things got bogged down, Ann Getty stepped in, saying she knew the top officers at Revlon and would see them at an upcoming wedding in New York. At the wedding--nobody in court was sure whose it was--she completed the deal for the jet and the next morning told Moorehead to go through with the sale, Crowe said.
When Moorehead said he could not locate Carr for last-minute advice on the deal, Ann Getty told him: “I want to buy the plane now” and instructed him to go ahead with the purchase, Crowe said.
“Without Landis Carr, the Gettys would never have bought this airplane,” Crowe said.
But Span said the Gettys never acknowledged Carr as their broker, adding that if any commission is due it should come from the seller, not the buyer.
“This might be entitled ‘The Case of the Contract That Never Was,’ ” Span told jurors.
Span said Carr brought up the subject of commissions with Moorehead only once, in 1982, but Moorehead contended that the conversation never took place.
The trial is expected to last through the end of the month, with Ann Getty, and possibly Gordon Getty, taking the stand.
