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On May 29, 1987, petitioner filed a motion in the District Court to
reinstate the award of $250,000 in actual damages and $1.5 million in punitive
damages which he had received from the jury on the invasion of privacy claim
which the District Court had set aside as duplicative of the libel award.
Petitioner argued that since the judgment on the libel claim had been reversed
and remanded, the invasion of privacy award was no longer duplicative of the
libel award and, therefore, should be reinstated. By order dated August 4,
1987, the District Court denied petitioner's motion as premature, but stated
in the order that if petitioner decided to forgo retrial of the libel claim,
the court would be disposed to reinstate the two damage awards, and that
petitioner also would be entitled to reinstatement of those two damage awards
if on retrial he failed to establish IBP's liability for libel.
A new trial was scheduled to begin with respect to petitioner's libel
claim on September 28, 1987. In August 1987, the parties were required to
meet for a settlement conference with a magistrate. Present at the conference
were Mr. Richard Smith (Mr. Smith), an attorney for IBP who had been retained
after the remand of the case by a new vice president and general counsel of
IBP, Mr. Lonny Grigsby (Mr. Grigsby); the magistrate; petitioner's counsel Mr.
William J. Rawlings (Mr. Rawlings); and an associate of Mr. Rawlings, Mr.
Michael P. Jacobs. For a brief time, Judge McManus was present at the
conference. At the settlement conference, the parties agreed to an out-of-
court settlement whereby IBP was to pay petitioner $1.5 million, and each
party agreed to dismiss the suit against the other. The settlement was agreed
to on behalf of IBP by Mr. Smith, Mr. Grigsby, and Mr. Robert Peterson, IBP's
president.
In negotiating the settlement, IBP's primary motivation was to resolve
the litigation for the lowest possible payment. IBP agreed to the settlement
primarily to limit its monetary exposure, resolve its dispute with petitioner
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