Gettys Ordered to Pay $4 Million in Airplane Dispute : Courts: Torrance jury awards commission and damages to brokerage firm that found a luxury Boeing 727 for the multimillionaire son and daughter-in-law of the late oil baron.
A jury ruled Thursday that the multimillionaire son and daughter-in-law of the late oil baron J. Paul Getty must pay a Torrance aircraft brokerage firm almost $4 million in damages for withholding a $432,500 commission on the couple’s purchase of a luxury Boeing 727.
Players in the 2 1/2-week trial included members of one of America’s wealthiest families, an aircraft broker whose clients have included Frank Sinatra, John F. Kennedy and Sammy Davis Jr., and a lawyer and business adviser to the Gettys who had served as assistant Treasury secretary in the Reagan Administration.
The trial also provided a glimpse of the wealth of Gordon Getty, one of J. Paul Getty’s five sons, and Ann Getty, Gordon Getty’s wife. Although their financial papers were submitted to the court under seal, Torrance Superior Court Judge Bob T. Hight told jurors that Gordon Getty’s net worth was $323 million and Ann Getty’s was $23 million.
After only three hours of deliberation, the jury concluded that in 1986, Ann and Gordon Getty conspired to cheat broker Landis Carr, retired head of aircraft sales for the Garrett Corp., out of a commission after he found them an $8.6-million 727 that the Revlon Corp. had put up for sale. The plane has two master suites, showers, an extra-large galley for the preparation of gourmet meals, and a combination sitting room and conference room.
The jury ordered the Gettys to pay Garrett Corp. the commission. It also awarded the firm punitive damages amounting to $1.2 million to be paid by Gordon Getty and $2.3 million to be paid by Ann Getty, who oversaw the effort to find and purchase the plane.
“I’m quite relieved and quite happy,” Carr said. “It would have been embarrassing if it had gone any other way.”
Upon hearing the verdict, Ann Getty “was very surprised,” said her attorney, Robert S. Span. Span said he expects the Gettys to move for a new trial or a reduction of the damages awarded on grounds that “there was insufficient evidence to support the verdict.”
“Public figures are very often accused of things, and once an accusation is made it’s very hard to get that out of the minds of people,” Span said. “People in the public eye may be held to a higher standard than ordinary people.”
But jurors said they treated the Gettys like any other defendants, and felt even more compelled to do so knowing that their decision would be scrutinized.
Jurors said they had trouble believing Ann Getty’s testimony that she could not recall details of the transaction. They also questioned why provisions for any brokers were excluded from an aircraft sales agreement signed by the couple and prepared by Revlon and Marc Leland, a Getty lawyer, adviser and former assistant Treasury secretary in the Reagan Administration.
Garrett Corp., the jurors said, made a clear case that since Carr found the plane, it would be fair for him to receive compensation, which he sought in an April, 1986, letter to Ann Getty.
“The sales agreement and the April 17th letter were very important to us,” said jury foreman Michael Call, 32, a production worker at Northrop Corp.
Carr and Garrett Corp. attorney J. Michael Crowe said they were pleased at the outcome of the trial. Carr said he expects Garrett Corp. to give him about half of the damages. Crowe agreed.
Garrett Corp. filed the lawsuit in 1986 after Carr said the Gettys refused to pay the commission.
Robert Moorehead, the father of Ann Getty’s personal assistant, began searching for a plane in 1982 after persuading Getty that an aircraft would allow her to travel when she wished, and in private. Moorehead contacted his friend Carr, who had brokered sales of planes to clients including Fortune 500 corporations and luminaries ranging from Kennedy to Wayne Newton.
But it was not until the spring of 1986 that the Gettys became serious about buying a plane.
Carr searched worldwide for a 727 and found one belonging to the Revlon Corp. When negotiations for the sale got bogged down, Ann Getty, who knew the top officers at the cosmetics firm, intervened, pushing forward the sale after meeting Revlon executives at a wedding in New York, Crowe said.
On April 13, the day after the wedding, she ordered Moorehead to “go for it” and finalize a sales agreement even though he told her that he could not find Carr.
Ann Getty testified that Moorehead had no authorization to hire a broker, and she never believed Carr was working for her. Span contended that even if Carr were due a commission it should come from the seller of the plane, not the buyer.
Crowe implored jurors to send a message to the Gettys that their behavior should not be tolerated. The damages, Crowe said, should make the Gettys say “Ouch, that really hurts. This is serious. We did something wrong.”
