PALM BEACH, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–After more than a decade of litigation, prominent Palm Beach residents Ike and Laurie Perlmutter have prevailed in their case against Florida neighbor Harold Peerenboom for civil conspiracy, abuse of process, and defamation, resulting in a $50 million verdict for Laura Perlmutter. The jury also awarded damages for loss of enjoyment of life to the Perlmutters.
Perlmutter, former Chairman and CEO of Marvel Entertainment, and his wife Laura were fully vindicated when a six-person jury in the Circuit Court of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in Palm Beach County Court, presided over by the Honorable G. Joseph Curley, returned a unanimous verdict in their favor on all counts, handed down on November 21.
The jury awarded $50 million in damages to Laura Perlmutter for defamation, and additional damages to both Ike and Laura for loss of enjoyment of life and humiliation stemming from abuse of process, conversion, and civil conspiracy. The trial spanned three weeks and concluded with a decisive outcome after the jury deliberated for only a few hours.
At trial, both Perlmutters took the stand to recount how Peerenboom, assisted by his then-attorney and house counsel for Chubb Insurance Co., William Douberley, orchestrated a plot to steal and analyze the Perlmutters DNA without their knowledge, consent or authorization.
Peerenboom sought to connect the Perlmutters’ DNA to a series of hate mail he and others received in 2011. In early 2013, Douberley, then an in-house attorney for Chubb, subpoenaed the Perlmutters for depositions where their DNA was surreptitiously collected and sent to a lab for analysis. The illicit taking, analysis, and testing of the Perlmutters’ DNA was done without their knowledge or consent. The jury found both Douberley and Peerenboom liable for abuse of process, conspiracy to abuse process, conversion, and conspiracy to convert. The jury also found Peerenboom liable for defamation and defamation per se.
“This has been a long, difficult journey for the Perlmutters. I am especially thrilled for Laurie Perlmutter that the jury recognized that her name and reputation matter. Ike and Laurie are wonderful people, and this was the right outcome,” said attorney Josh Dubin, who has represented the Perlmutters in the litigation for the past decade.
As far back as October 2013, the DNA report from the accredited lab that conducted the testing conclusively found that the Perlmutters were not involved in the hate mail. Over the next three years, Peerenboom continued to investigate the perpetrator of the hate campaign, ultimately learning it was committed by a former colleague, David Smith, and not the Perlmutters.
Despite DNA evidence exonerating the Perlmutters, and knowing the identity of the real culprit, Peerenboom continued his own vindictive campaign to terrorize the Perlmutters, their lawsuit claimed.
Through his counsel at national law firm Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, Peerenboom disseminated false statements to The New York Times and other media outlets. Peerenboom, a Canadian native, also gave an interview to The Globe and Mail—falsely implicating Mrs. Perlmutter. In 2016, both outlets published articles claiming the DNA implicated Mrs. Perlmutter.
The jury awarded damages to the Perlmutters based on their loss of ability to enjoy life and humiliation, and to Mrs. Perlmutter for humiliation, embarrassment and the harm to her reputation. After more than a decade of litigation, the Perlmutters have now been vindicated at trial.
“Beyond the magnitude of the defamation award, the verdict is especially significant in upholding the integrity of DNA evidence, which has become the holy grail of forensic science,” Dubin added. “There are clear legal protocols for obtaining, testing, and analyzing a person’s DNA, which were flagrantly abused in this case.”
The Perlmutters were represented at trial by lead counsel Josh Dubin. Gregory Wyckoff of Dubin Law, alongside lawyers from Black Srebnick, including Jared Lopez also represented the Perlmutters at trial.
Contacts
Media Contact:
Allan Ripp 646-285-1779 [email protected]
