PORTLAND, Maine — A judge has ordered Cate Street Capital CEO John Halle and his wife, Sharon, to buy a former business partner three batches of first-class, round-trip tickets to East Coast destinations as part of his ruling in an approximately $2.6 million personal lawsuit.
U.S. Magistrate Judge John Nivison ordered the first-class ticket deal for plaintiff Richard Davimos in a ruling Tuesday, settling a dispute in settlement talks over Davimos’ request for annual trips aboard a plane used by Cate Street executives for business travel.
Halle, whose company managed the now bankrupt Great Northern Paper mill and still has land in Millinocket where a high-tech wood pellet mill is planned, separately agreed to pay $1.9 million in installments that began Dec. 31, 2014.
During an earlier phase of the case, Halle testified that he had no personal bank account or personal assets and that his wife owned Cate Street and its affiliated projects through the parent company Jenis Investment Co.
The decision from Nivison calls for Halle to pay for two first-class plane tickets for Davimos to destinations somewhere on the East Coast up to two times a year, through 2021.
He’s also required to pay for the cost of four first-class plane tickets up to one time a year, through 2021, at Davimos’ request.
The order also requires Halle to pay Davimos’ baggage fees.
The order settles the outstanding wrinkle in the legal fight that stemmed from a lawsuit filed in New York in 2002 over a loan Davimos provided to help finance the film “My First Mister.” The parties reached an agreement to allow Davimos three round-trips per year on a Mitsubishi MU2 turboprop plane owned by a company belonging to Halle’s wife.
The parties disagreed about who would pay fuel costs and other expenses associated with those flights, resulting in the order Nivison determined provided a reasonable way to enforce the settlement terms reached by Halle and Davimos.