In a turn-around seldom seen in civil jury cases, BSF has won the right to a retrial of a fraud claim for its client Terra Firma against Citigroup over the leveraged buyout of EMI. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the verdict in the case which went to trial in the fall of 2010, remanding the case to the District Court for a new trial.
In the ruling, the Second Circuit adopted BSF’s argument that the District Court should have given the jury a burden-shifting instruction to which Terra Firma was entitled under English law, which governed Terra Firma’s claims. Circuit Judge John M. Walker, Jr.’s, published opinion explained that while “we are loath to overturn a jury verdict in a civil case,” Terra Firma had persuaded the Court of Appeals that the jury instructions were prejudicial, requiring reversal.
Please click the below links for media coverage of this win.