Palm Restaurant Heirs’ $120 Million Win Over Licensing Affirmed

A New York court correctly awarded $120 million to original Palm Restaurant heirs who own minority shares because the majority owners committed fiduciary misconduct in their below-market brand licensing deals, a state appeals court said.

Majority owners Bruce Bozzi and Wally Ganzi Jr.—who are grandsons of the Palm’s two founders—failed to convince the First Department of New York State’s Appellate Division of the Supreme Court that breach of fiduciary claims were filed too late. The court rejected their argument that the relevant licensing contracts weren’t new acts because they merely continued a prior arrangement, one that was too old to ...