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Disney Appeals $240 Mil Jury Verdict on Sports Complex Conviction

ORLANDO-Orange County Circuit Court Judge Ted Coleman denies the theme park operator's motion to dismiss ne of the steepest civil case awards in Florida legal annals.

By Alex Finkelstein | Updated on November 15, 2000

ORLANDO-Walt Disney World has seen better days. But Wednesday wasn’t one of them. The 30-year-old theme park operator lost a legal bid to overturn a record $240-million judgment after a six-member jury in August convicted the park of stealing the idea for its 150,000-sf, $20-million Wide World of Sports complex in Lake Buena Vista, FL from All Pro Sports Camps Inc. of Tampa, FL.

Orange County Circuit Court Judge Ted Coleman denied Disney’s motions to throw out the suit, reduce the judgment amount, and order a new trial. At the same time, the judge also rejected a motion by All Pro Sports principals Nicholas Stracick and Edward Russell to have Disney pay their $5-million in legal fees and grant additional damages that would triple the original jury award to $720 million.

Instead, Coleman gave the defendants only an extra $100 in damages because he found Disney didn’t act maliciously or willfully. The August jury found Disney guilty of misappropriating trade secrets, making fraudulent and negligent misrepresentations, and breaching confidential relationships with the two defendants in the five years prior to the construction of the Wide World of Sports complex.

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