THOUSAND OAKS : Daughters Settle Suit Over Father’s Coins

The daughters of a Thousand Oaks millionaire Wednesday settled their legal action against a coin auction house co-owned by Bruce McNall, part owner of the Los Angeles Kings, after a judge ruled the women failed to prove the company defrauded them.

Robin Trompeter Gonzalez and her sister, Janet Trompeter Polachek, sued Superior Stamp & Coin Co., which is 51% owned by McNall, in 1992 over its handling of their father’s coin collection.

Before dying of cancer, Ed Trompeter, a Westlake Village electronics manufacturer, decided to sell his collection, fearing that after his death his daughters would not know enough about coins to avoid being swindled.

Trompeter hired Superior, a company he had done business with for 20 years, to sell nearly 400 coins in two separate auctions. The legal battle erupted after the first auction, which took in $3.5 million in gross proceeds.

The women sought $1.5 million in damages from the coin company, which they accused of overcharging their father on the sale of some coins, improperly keeping proceeds from an auction of some of their father’s coins and charging them $1 million for a debt the company claimed their father owed.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Curry dismissed the fraud allegation against Superior on the grounds that the sisters had failed to produce evidence to back up their claim that Superior had agreed to buy back $550,000 in coins from their father to wipe out a debt he owed the company of about $1 million, said Frank Revere, an attorney representing Superior.

Curry, however, found in favor of the sisters that Superior had breached its contract with their father by keeping $350,000 in auction proceeds.

After the judge’s ruling, the women chose to settle with Superior and its co-owner, Ira Goldberg, also a defendant. McNall, although he owns a majority share of the coin company, was not named as a defendant individually.