$200M Legal Battle Now Playing Out in Dallas

DALLAS-An all-star cast of characters is using Dallas as the battlefield for another go-round over a failed timeshare plan for the former Maxim Hotel in Las Vegas. The stakes in the game could easily surpass $200 million for lost business interests from a plan gone awry for a twice-sold property along the Strip.

Timeshare pioneer Hillel A. Meyers of Miami, investor Donald G. Saunders of Las Vegas and attorney Thomas K. Russell of California are suing a pair of high-powered Dallas businessmen, Gary and Michael Kornman, and Howard Jenkins, chairman of Florida-based Publix Supermarkets Inc., for allegedly undermining the hotel plan in 1998. Also under fire is a host of businesses, including Premier Interval Resorts Inc. in Dallas and Houston-based Meralex LP and Revanche LLC. The case was filed in the 19th Judicial District Court of Dallas; the trial date is Oct. 18.

The six businessmen have been embroiled in legal battles since 1999 when Maxim’s prior owner, Premier Interval Resorts, filed Chapter 11 in a finger-pointing bankruptcy. Five years into the battle, Meyers, Saunders and Russell said they learned during depositions a year ago that now-established facts differed widely from what they were told in the past, William A. Brewer III, partner in Dallas-based Bickel & Brewer, tells GlobeSt.com. “It was pure happenstance that my guys found this out,” he says.