Toronto — The lawyer who helped organize a news conference four years ago that allegedly defamed Sullivan Entertainment and spoiled its plans to go public delayed in letting the entertainment group know of the event, court heard Friday.
Tony Kelly, lawyer for Sullivan Entertainment president Kevin Sullivan, questioned Marian Hebb's motives for organizing the 1999 news conference, where the heirs of Anne of Green Gables author Lucy Maud Montgomery claimed they hadn't received any profits from Sullivan's productions of two Green Gables films.
"I thought it was a reasonable thing to do and I supported it," Hebb said.
When asked why she was reluctant to give Sullivan advance notice of the event, Hebb said she was concerned he would hold his own news conference.
"I thought he would arrange some sort of counter-event to neutralize the effect of the press conference," Hebb said.
Court also heard that Montgomery's heirs hiked their compensation settlement proposal with Sullivan Entertainment tenfold over a six-month period leading up to the conference.
Hebb testified she had asked Sullivan for $550,000 in January 1999. But six months later, that figure jumped to $5 million.
"So the offer is 10 times more in June than it was in January?" Kelly asked.
"I rely on your math, but that's probably correct," Hebb said.
At the time, Sullivan, who produced two Green Gables movies in 1985 and 1987, had issued a preliminary prospectus to go public, which Hebb saw.
"So you're telling the court the offer went up because you saw the preliminary prospectus?" Kelly asked.
"I am," Hebb said, adding that the increase was prompted strictly by the prospectus.
Later in the day, Montgomery's granddaughter took the stand, wrapping up an exhausting week that also featured testimony from the novelist's 88-year-old daughter-in-law.
Kate Macdonald Butler, 46, spoke of her increasing involvement with the Montgomery estate from 1991 onward. She told defence lawyer Vicki White of her shock when she read of Sullivan Entertainment's success in a 1996 Financial Post Magazine story.
"It caught my eye definitely, because so far I was told the films hadn't recouped," Macdonald Butler testified.
Sullivan is suing Montgomery's three heirs, Hebb and public relations firm Media Profile for $55-million, alleging the 1999 news conference defamed his company, ruined his initial public offering and cost him millions.
Hebb and the heirs say they held the news conference because Sullivan refused to give them profits from the two Green Gables films and "stonewalled" at least 40 requests throughout the 1990s for an audit.
The case resumes Monday.
