On the stand in Hamilton County Circuit Court, Ed Wall was asked about his net worth.
“Before the judgment, it was $1.4 million,” Wall said. “Today, it’s negative $19 million.”
Days before, a civil jury levied a $20,599,000 compensatory damage verdict against Wall and his former employer, Sterne Agee & Leach Inc. After his testimony Tuesday, the jury awarded an additional $11 million in punitive damages to plaintiffs Canyon Ridge, LLC, and Scenic Land, LLC.
Wall is on the hook for $1.25 million of those additional damages.
The Canyon Ridge Case stemmed from a dispute over a proposed Walker County, Ga., conference center and hotel. The plaintiffs, developers for Canyon Ridge on Lookout Mountain, alleged that Wall planned to build a competing hotel on the same sight as Canyon Ridge while also working for Canyon Ridge.
The trial, the longest in Hamilton County Circuit Court history, caused a buzz in Chattanooga’s legal community and produced what is likely the county’s largest civil jury award.
No records seem to exist that can truly nail that fact down. The online Tennessee Jury Verdict Reporter keeps records of personal injury complaints in the state through 2013, and ranked the Chattanooga case as the sixth-largest in state history.
In 2010, a Franklin couple was awarded what was, at the time, the largest malpractice judgment in state history. Bette and Ben Donathan were granted $22.2 million in damages after Bette was paralyzed from the waist down following surgery meant to repair her broken leg.
According to the Jury Verdict Reporter, which keeps records up to 2013, the largest verdict comes from Nashville.
A Davidson County jury granted that $105 million verdict after an infant was killed by a passenger seat that collapsed on him during an accident. The next-largest verdict dropped to $58 million and was rendered in a Shelby County court after two passengers were killed in a Chrysler minivan crash.
The Jury Verdict Reporter reports no larger verdicts from Hamilton County, but that list of personal injury verdicts wouldn’t necessarily include commercial claims like those filed by Canyon Ridge.
While it may be impossible to determine with complete certainty what the county’s largest award looks like, the legal community is small, and its long-timers are calling this one a biggie.
“Any way you cut it, it is a significant verdict, and I just don’t remember anything like that ever,” said Max Bahner, an attorney who has practiced in Chattanooga for 65 years.
Bahner said he would be surprised to find another jury verdict had topped this total $31.5 million.
Longtime local attorney Jerry Summers agreed.
“I think it is probably [the largest],” said Summers, who has practiced in Chattanooga for 47 years.
Summers also pointed out that it’s possible that actual payouts in this case, if any, will look different from the jury verdict.
A hearing set for Thursday could determine whether punitive damages even stick, and the parties could also choose to settle. The process will likely require appeals as well.
“Getting the horse in the barn is important, but you’ve got to keep him in the barn,” Summers said.
Contacts staff writer Claire Wiseman atcwiseman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow her on Twitter @clairelwiseman.