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Hanna’s Candle Gets Burned in Court Judgment

2 min read

Last week, Bank of America received a final judgment totaling $6.2 million against Hanna’s Candle Co. of Fayetteville, its owner, Burt Hanna, and two of his limited liability companies.

The case involved breach of contract claims tied to loan defaults against the Hanna’s entities. The case is 6 years old and already has had one trip to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit.

Get ready for another. Hanna vows to continue fighting the case that also involved JB Hanna LLC and Kerzen Properties LLC as defendants.

“These amounts are the result of a summary judgment ruling entered by the court which we disagree with,” Hanna said in an email to Whispers. “We intend to appeal these amounts and judgment to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, and we are confident we will prevail in this ongoing litigation that began in 2010.”

In May 2012, a jury ruled in Hanna’s favor after a seven-day trial. Bank of America appealed that ruling to the 8th Circuit. The verdict was overturned in 2014, and the case was sent back to the U.S. District Court in Fayetteville.

U.S. District Judge Brian Miller’s final judgment issued last week included $3.2 million for compensatory damages, $2.5 million in attorneys’ fees, $463,000 for costs and interest of $86,900.

(Miller, as our attorney readers undoubtedly know, is actually chief judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas, but a recusal back in 2010 dragged him into this Western District case.)

Jeff Mitchell, Hanna’s attorney with Taylor Law Partners of Fayetteville, sent a statement to Whispers:

“We disagree that summary judgment was appropriate, and believe the judge erred in refusing to give my clients a new trial and allow them to assert certain defenses to the bank’s claims that the Eighth Circuit did not address.

“Unfortunately, we will be required to ask the Eighth Circuit to again remand this case back for a new trial, this time after having clarified that our defenses are appropriate. Assuming we are given that relief, I feel confident that we’ll ultimately prevail.”

Stay tuned.

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