Hollinger wins judgement against media mogul Black

Newspaper publisher Hollinger International has won a judgement from a Delaware court against its former chief executive, ex-Daily Telegraph boss Conrad Black.

Vice chancellor Leo Strine refused Black’s request to enter more evidence in an effort to upset findings that he breached his duty of trust to the Chicago-based company, which publishes the Telegraph, the Chicago Sun-Times and The Jerusalem Post.

Earlier, Strine found Black broke a pact with Hollinger International by attempting to sell control of the company without telling the board.

Strine also dismissed claims by Black against Richard Breeden, a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman who is advising the company, board member James Thompson, a former Illinois governor, and other directors of Hollinger International.

Black had said they duped him into signing a deal agreeing not to interfere with the company’s efforts to find a buyer.

The rulings came in a lawsuit Hollinger filed to bar Black from attempting to sell his shares of Hollinger Inc, a Canadian company which owns about 30.3% of the stock in Hollinger International, but more than 78% of its voting rights.

After a February trial, Strine barred Black from selling his Hollinger Inc shares to David and Frederick Barclay, owners of London’s Ritz Hotel, a move that would have given them control of the company.

Yesterday’s ruling makes final Strine’s earlier decision that Black attempted to subvert the Hollinger International sale process for his own ends.

Black and Hollinger Inc have already appealed against parts of that decision, in which he upheld a “poison pill” anti-takeover defence mechanism that Hollinger International planned to put in place to head off the deal with the Barclays and struck down moves by Black to gain veto power over the Hollinger International board.

Those rulings rested on findings that Black breached duties to Hollinger International, Strine said, in refusing to reopen the evidence for more testimony from the ousted media mogul.

On Monday, a federal judge in Chicago cited Strine’s ruling in refusing to overturn a consent decree between Hollinger International and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Hollinger International is pursuing a claim for more than 1.2 billion dollars against Black in the same Illinois federal court.

Strine ordered Black to report to the court by June 2 whether he and Hollinger Inc had met a June 1 deadline to pay a combined total of about 29.8 million dollars to Hollinger International.