Ex-Baldwin Co. Executive Is Awarded $2.2 Million
The former president of bankrupt Baldwin Co.’s Orange County division won a $2.2-million wrongful termination award last week against the company and its owners, brothers Alfred and James Baldwin.
Geoffrey Fearns, now president of pension fund manager Lowe Enterprises’ real estate investment subsidiary in Brea, said Friday that he intends to seek payment from the brothers personally, because their company is involved in a Chapter 11 reorganization and has no funds to pay the award.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. May 16, 1996 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday May 16, 1996 Orange County Edition Business Part D Page 2 Financial Desk 1 inches; 30 words Type of Material: Correction
Baldwin settlement--A story Sunday mischaracterized a $2.2-million award to a former Baldwin Co. executive who claimed he was wrongfully terminated. The award was for money owed under a profit-sharing agreement.
The award was made under a binding arbitration procedure involving Fearns, the Baldwins and their company. Retired Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert E. Rickles ruled in favor of Fearns after a series of hearings that began in 1994.
The award, which must be validated in Superior Court, gives Fearns the right to attach personal assets of the Baldwin brothers, including their residences, automobiles and other property, to satisfy his claim.
Fearns resigned from Baldwin Co. in November 1993 and filed the arbitration claim in February 1994, claiming he was forced out.
Fearns claimed the Baldwin brothers had manufactured reprimands and complaints against him and placed them in his personnel file so they could fire him and void a profit-sharing agreement.
The Baldwins could not be reached for comment Friday. But their attorney, Dean Ziehl, said Fearns received far less than the $10 million he had sought and had been criticized by Rickles for his conduct as a Baldwin Co. executive. Ziehl said that the Baldwins had originally offered to pay Fearns about $2 million to drop his claim.
“After two years, he got what we said he was owed and far less than he wanted,” the lawyer said.
Fearns characterized the comments as an attempt by the Baldwin brothers to turn a loss into a win.
While the brothers’ home-building company is in bankruptcy reorganization and has been taken over by a court-appointed trustee, the Baldwins continue to control and operate dozens of other businesses, including a land-holding firm, Village Development, that owns about 20,000 acres of residential property in south San Diego County.
