Disney Investors Can Pursue Ovitz Case
Former Walt Disney Co. President Michael Ovitz must face investors’ claims that he should return more than $100 million in severance, a judge ruled.
Delaware Chancery Court Judge William B. Chandler III ruled Friday that Disney shareholders could proceed with claims that Ovitz didn’t deserve the payments and stock options he received when he left the company in 1996 and violated legal duties by accepting the severance.
The judge also threw out one claim against Ovitz.
The ruling clears the way for the lawsuit, which seeks to hold Ovitz and Disney directors liable for the severance package, to go to trial Oct. 18.
Shares of Burbank-based Disney rose 16 cents to $23.32 on the New York Stock Exchange.
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