Judge Wants Trial to Move Faster

A federal judge has set out measures for “greatly accelerating” the pace of California’s case against French holding company Artemis over the sale of failed Executive Life Insurance Co.

U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz in Los Angeles said in an order dated Tuesday that he would prohibit “irrelevant” questioning and restrict “outside-of-jury bickering and colloquies.”

Matz also said he would limit lawyers from reading documents into the record, then asking witnesses: “Do you see that?”

Lawyers for California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi are four weeks into their case against Artemis, a company controlled by French billionaire Francois Pinault, over the sale of Executive Life to Credit Lyonnais in 1991.

France last month agreed to pay $600 million to settle the state’s claims against Credit Lyonnais, leaving Artemis as the only defendant.

This isn’t the first time Matz has expressed concern about the presentation of the trial. This month he told lawyers that some of the jurors appeared to be “baffled” and told Garamendi’s lawyers that they were spending too much time introducing documents that had “nothing to do with the questions actually raised.”

Matz previously allowed each side 90 hours to question witnesses at trial.

California, which is still presenting its case, had used about 41 hours as of Tuesday, and attorneys for Artemis had used 19.

In January, Matz said he might shorten their allotted time if he found that any party had “unnecessarily, unreasonably, vexatiously imposed upon the limited time” with the jurors.

“I now find that both sides have unnecessarily and unreasonably done just that, but given both parties’ assurances in court, I do not at this time intend to cut back on the 90 hours” per side, Matz wrote in his order.

Gary Fontana, a lawyer for Garamendi, said outside of court Wednesday that “we are moving reasonably quickly toward a conclusion” and he expected to rest his case next week.

James Clark, a lawyer for Artemis, said his side told Matz that “our case is going to be pretty quick” and should be concluded by April 12.

A Credit Lyonnais subsidiary bought Executive Life’s bond portfolio for $3.25 billion, and a group of French investors acquired the insurance business for $300 million in 1993.

Garamendi’s lawyers claim that Credit Lyonnais had secret agreements that allowed it to control the French investor group in violation of state and federal laws. Artemis joined the conspiracy when it bought a portion of Executive Life and agreed to conceal the fraud, Garamendi claims.

Lawyers for Artemis argue that Garamendi knew that Credit Lyonnais was behind the French investors and that he chose to ignore that because they offered the highest and most financially secure bid at a court auction for Executive Life’s assets.

They also contend that Garamendi wanted a bid that separated the junk bonds from the insurance unit. Garamendi disputes those arguments.