Dallas jury awards $8.5 million to General Projection Systems against Burlington Northern Railroad Co.DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 24, 1996--Thursday in Judge Marshall's 14th District Court of Dallas County Dallas County is the name of five counties in the United States of America:
After almost four weeks of trial, the jury took just over two hours to find that Burlington Northern had breached its contract with General Projection. Further, the jury found that Burlington was guilty of negligence, gross negligence An indifference to, and a blatant violation of, a legal duty with respect to the rights of others. Gross negligence is a conscious and voluntary disregard of the need to use reasonable care, which is likely to cause foreseeable grave injury or harm to persons, property, or , conversion of General Projection property and that Burlington Northern had acted with malice malice, in law, an intentional violation of the law of crimes or torts that injures another person. Malice need not involve a malignant spirit or the definite intent to do harm. toward General Projection. These serious tort findings resulted in the jury awarding an additional $7.5 million against Burlington in punitive damages. The issues arose from a 1994 contract in which Burlington hired General Projection to build the electronic display and AV systems at Burlington's new Network Operations Center See NOC. Network Operations Center - (NOC) A location from which the operation of a network or internet is monitored. Additionally, this center usually serves as a clearinghouse for connectivity problems and efforts to resolve those problems. in Ft. Worth. General Projection asserted that Burlington had breached its contract with General Projection when Burlington terminated the contract and then refused to pay for work and services done. The tort claims arose when Burlington and their agents seized on-site tools, materials and computers of General Projection; additionally, Burlington's agent admitted in court that he had lied to General Projection employees. Drake Wayson, president of General Projection said: "We were overwhelmed o·ver·whelm tr.v. o·ver·whelmed, o·ver·whelm·ing, o·ver·whelms 1. To surge over and submerge; engulf: waves overwhelming the rocky shoreline. 2. a. by the jury's verdict. Not only do we feel that a real injustice has been undone but we believe that this award against Burlington should send a wake up call to companies that act like Burlington." General Projection was represented in the matter by attorney Richard Nelson of Garland, Texas Garland is a city in Dallas County, Texas, (USA). It is a northeastern suburb of Dallas and is a major part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 215,768, making it the tenth-most populous city in Texas and the eighty-sixth most . Nelson stated: "By its unanimous finding of malice, the jury has said in unmistakable terms how it views Burlington's conduct in this case. It remains to be seen whether Burlington is listening." General Projection Systems Inc., is an international full-service Systems Integrator that designs and installs video, sound and audiovisual systems; as well as videoteleconferencing systems. The Orlando-based firm also has offices in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden , Phoenix, Dallas, and Baltimore/Washington. -0- NOTE TO EDITORS: In the Internet/email address noted in this news release, there is an "at" symbol, between CDickens and genproj.com. This symbol may not appear properly in some systems. CONTACT: General Projection Systems, Orlando Cheryl Dickens, Director of Marketing 407/260-5511 email: CDickens@genproj.com |
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