Judge approves $14 million jury award

Monday, Nov. 13, 2000 | 10:45 a.m.

Douglas District Court Judge David Gamble approved the award against the company and Warren House for permitting assets of an elderly Lake Tahoe woman's estate to be depleted.

Gamble's action came about two months after the Nevada Supreme Court unanimously upheld a 1996 Douglas District Court jury finding against Dean Witter and House for conspiring to convert personal and real property.

Lawyers for the woman's estate have said the $14 million award was the largest single-plaintiff award ever in Douglas County and possibly the state.

In August, the Supreme Court ordered the company and House to pay $4.1 million in compensatory damages to the heirs of Elfreda Gardner, a Douglas County resident who died in 1993. That figure was up $1.5 million over the jury's award.

At the same time, justices upheld the jury's finding that Dean Witter should pay $6 million in punitive damages while House should pay $50,000.

With interest, the amount totaled about $14 million.

At issue was the management of Gardner's assets. A jury decided Dean Witter and House knowingly helped deplete her estate by mishandling her money.

Assets worth $8 million were transferred from Gardner's account to the control of her nephew, Jack Gardner, a California lawyer. She allegedly signed all of the account documents.

Jack Gardner and Donald Brooks, manager of Dean Witter's Lake Tahoe office, testified they witnessed the signatures.

But the Supreme Court said two handwriting experts testified the signatures were not those of Elfreda Gardner and that three different inks were used in the signing of the papers.

After her death at age 93, Jack Gardner continued to transfer assets from her account to his control. The court said Dean Witter allowed the transfers, despite its policy of freezing accounts when a client dies.

Dean Witter and House contend their acts were negligent at best and they were only complying with the requests of Jack Gardner, who had authority to act on his aunt's behalf.

Jack Gardner died before the trial of a lawsuit filed by his aunt's estate, and his estate reached a separate out-of-court settlement.