Wells Fargo Plans to Contest Award

MONTEREY — A Wells Fargo attorney on Thursday sharply criticized a jury’s decision to award $60 million in damages to a Castroville farmer who charged that the bank drove him out of business by canceling the financing on his 1,500-acre operation.

“There were some jurors who apparently felt that the bank must have been wrong because it’s a bank, as opposed to based on what the facts were,” said the attorney, William Trautman.

Wells Fargo plans to petition for a new trial and, if unsuccessful, to appeal the case to the state Court of Appeals.

After deliberating for two days, a Monterey County Superior Court jury on Wednesday awarded strawberry grower Garth Conlan $10 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages. Conlan must pay $5.35 million he still owes the bank.

“We were very surprised by the award,” said Trautman, an attorney with the San Francisco firm of Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison. “I didn’t think this was a liability case and certainly not a punitive damages case.”

After the verdict, Conlan, 52, said he was glad that the trial was over because the whole affair had been a “very bad experience.”

“It’s not the money,” Conlan said. “It’s the vindication for me.”

William Lukens, Conlan’s attorney, said the jury’s verdict sent banks a message that “when you’re a large bank dealing with a customer, you should never act with vengeance.”

“This is certainly one of the largest awards that I’m aware of, but it’s reflective of the wrong done here,” Lukens said.

Conlan filed a $100-million suit against Wells Fargo on Nov. 7, 1985, alleging fraud, breach of contract and intentional infliction of emotional distress in connection with an $8-million loan he received in 1982 at Well Fargo’s regional banking office in Salinas, Calif.