Appeals court reaffirms record damage in Six Flags case

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Posted 8:18AM on Tuesday, April 2, 2002

ATLANTA - The Georgia Court of Appeals has again upheld a $257 million punitive damage award against Time Warner Entertainment, which was accused by investors of Six Flags over Georgia of mismanaging the amusement park. Ten judges on the 12-member court upheld the award. ``Given the amount of intentional economic damage inflicted by corporate entities with collective assets measured in billions of dollars, we believe that the award of punitive damages was reasonably calculated to punish them and to deter such conduct in the future,'' the court said. The Court of Appeals had upheld a Gwinnett County jury's December 1998 award of the punitive damages and $197 in compensatory damages, the largest civil award ever in Georgia. The state Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal. AOL Time Warner took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. In October, the high court told the Court of Appeals to review the punitive-damage award in light of an earlier ruling that appeals courts should use a broad standard to decide if awards of punitive damages are so large as to be unconstitutional. Time Warner and its partners sold the Six Flags chain of theme parks in February 1998 to Premier Parks, an Oklahoma City-based amusement park operator, for $1.9 billion. Premier has since changed its name to Six Flags, Inc. The investors claimed in their lawsuit that Time Warner had mismanaged the suburban Atlanta park in an effort to depress its value. ``This is an important decision both to the clients and all businesses in Georgia and the country,'' said Jim Bulter, the plaintiffs' lead attorney. ``It proves that predatory misconduct will not be tolerated by the courts, no matter how powerful the culprit might be.'' Jack Dalton, an attorney for AOL Time Warner, said an appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court was a likely next step. ``We'll be seeking a further review of this decision,'' Dalton said.