STUTTGART, Germany, Sept. 19 A U.S. appeals court ruled investor Kirk Kerkorian had no right to damages over the Daimler-Benz AG and Chrysler Corp. merger, DaimlerChrysler said Wednesday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia upheld a Delaware U.S. District Court's 2005 ruling Kerkorian hadn't been defrauded in the 1998 merger of Daimler-Benz AG and Chrysler Corp., the German automaker said.
Kerkorian claimed in a 2000 lawsuit against DaimlerChrysler that Daimler-Benz had swindled him out of billions of dollars by calling the $36 billion deal a "merger of equals."
Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. was Chrysler's largest shareholder at the time.
"DaimlerChrysler is pleased to announce the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has unanimously affirmed the trial court's judgment dismissing Tracinda's complaint relating to the 1998 merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler," the company said.
Kerkorian and Tracinda representatives weren't immediately available for comment.
DaimlerChrysler said the verdict had no financial consequences because the company had set aside no money in case it lost the case. It had set aside money for legal fees and court costs, it said.
The appeals court ruled DaimlerChrysler owed $556,000 as a penalty for producing documents late.
DaimlerChrysler sold off 80.1 percent of Chrysler to U.S. private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP for $7.4 billion Aug. 3.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
