Disney Denied Celador Appeal

BURBANK: A federal district court has denied The Walt Disney Company’s attempts to overturn a previous verdict that awarded $319 million in damages and interest to Celador International, the British creators of the hit game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.

Disney was asking to overturn the verdict or at least to have the judge order a new trial. The studio argued that the judge made errors in admitting or excluding evidence, including an e-mail message from former Disney chairman Michael Eisner that estimated the value of Millionaire to its ABC network as "$1 billion, wild guess, maybe more." Disney also took issue the amount the jury awarded—Celador had asked for up to $395 million but got slightly less ($260 million in network fees and $9.2 million in money owned from the sale of related merchandise)—and the experts Celador used to support its damages claim.

The judge denied Disney’s motions to throw out the jury’s July ruling or to order a new trial in the dispute, which is six years and running. Disney has 30 days to appeal the decision, which it says it plans to do. "We continue to believe the verdict is fundamentally wrong," a Disney spokesman said. "And will aggressively seek to have it reversed on appeal."

Roman M. Silberfeld, the Los Angeles attorney representing Celador, fired back: "I assure you, Disney made every attack imaginable over the course of six years," Silberfeld said. "They’ve had, by all measures, a fair opportunity to have their case heard, to make their arguments. Their arguments were rejected and this is a completely proper verdict."