Fightertown Loses $7-Million Skirmish With BancBoston

A San Francisco-based investment firm won a reversal of a $7-million verdict that it had been ordered to pay last year for failing to take a private Lake Forest company public.

The ruling in favor of BancBoston Robertson Stephens & Co. was made final Friday in Orange County Superior Court, four years after BancBoston was sued by Fightertown Entertainment Inc. for breach of contract.

Fightertown, a flight-simulation company, had accused BancBoston Robertson Stephens of guaranteeing to take it public--at a $150-million valuation--then failing to do so.

After a two-month trial, Fightertown, which sought more than $325 million, was awarded $7 million by a jury. Judge Ronald C. Kline reversed that verdict last week, concluding there was not enough evidence to support Fightertown’s claim.

“They [at BancBoston Robertson Stephens] believed all along that there was no substance to the claim, it was not a legally appropriate claim, and that the claim should not have been brought,” said the investment firm’s attorney, Richard S. Odom.

Fightertown’s chief executive, Andrew Messing, and company attorneys Thomas Girardi and Walter Lack could not be reached for comment.