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A $2.5B award in a decades-long legal case between five brothers who partnered to buy and operate Los Angeles apartments has more than doubled after a jury awarded $3B in punitive damages.
The jury decided Haresh Jogani must pay his brother Shashikant Jogani punitive damages of $1.5B in addition to the $1.8B he had already been awarded, representatives of the plaintiffs told Bloomberg. Haresh was also ordered to pay two other brothers, Rajesh and Chetan, punitive damages of $1.5B total on top of their previous award of $759M.
In all, the sum of the award seems to be among the largest of the decade, according to Bloomberg.
“The final chapter is far from written,” Larson partner Rick Richmond, lead counsel for Haresh Jogani, said in an emailed statement. “In addition to eventual appellate review, there are several pending and anticipated trial and post-trial motions that may dramatically alter this verdict.”
The trial, which first began in 2003, centers on a 17,000-unit multifamily portfolio that, the court found, the brothers built together. One brother, Haresh, attempted to cut the others out and the court has found that he was not correct in doing so, awarding them billions.
Whether those awards will be realized is unclear. Haresh was ordered to hold onto his assets so they could be distributed, Steve Friedman, an attorney for Shashikant Jogani, told Bloomberg. However, Haresh didn’t appear in court Thursday after five months of being mostly present for the trial.
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