A jury today awarded an additional $11.5 million in punitive damages to developers of the Canyon Ridge resort.
Today's arguments marked the final phase of a trial that was already the longest in Hamilton County civil court history. The more than $20 million in compensatory damages already awarded in the case made it the second-costliest case in county history.
It's not clear what the additional $11.5 million does for that standing.
The jury ordered financial services firm Stern Agee and Leach to pay $10 million to Canyon Ridge, LLC and $250,000 to Scenic Land, LLC. Defendant Edmund Wall will owe an additional $1 million to Canyon Ridge, LLC and $250,000 to Scenic Land, LLC.
The suit, first filed in 2011, alleges Sterne Agee and Leach and Wall worked with Chattanooga firm Grove Street Partners to plan a competing commercial development in Walker County while also working to plan a hotel and conference center at Canyon Ridge.
Randy Baker, co-founder of the Canyon Ridge Club and Resort development project, looks out over the Pigeon Mountain Wildlife Management Area from the 18th hole of the club's golf course in this 2010 photo.