The real estate entrepreneur Anno August Jagdfeld and the Dortmund insurance group Signal Iduna have been arguing in court for years.
Jagdfeld, whose group of companies owns the luxury Hotel Adlon in Berlin and the Grand Hotel Heiligendamm via funds, accuses Signal Iduna of a character assassination campaign and wants to sue for damages as well as compensation for pain and suffering.
Marcus Jung
Editor in business.
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As a member of a protection association of fund owners, the insurer had worked towards his dismissal as managing director of Adlon funds and also initiated a criminal complaint against him.
As a result, his reputation suffered and he suffered considerable financial loss.
Jagdfeld put his past damage at up to one billion euros.
Similar case to Leo Kirch?
This sum would, if there was a judgment at all, be comparable to the damages that the heirs of media dealer Leo Kirch received from Deutsche Bank a few years ago. Kirch had also litigated for a long time because of his reputation: he had accused Deutsche Bank of having contributed to the bankruptcy of his media group. The Jagdfeld camp had repeatedly referred to this earlier legal dispute in court.
On this Monday, both opponents met again in the appeal before the Hamm Higher Regional Court.
The 8th Senate listened to the plaintiff's and Signal Iduna's arguments for almost four hours.
Even if there was no verdict, there is a high probability that Jagdfeld will have to face another legal defeat.
The Higher Regional Court announced that the Senate had indicated that it shared the evaluations made by the Dortmund Regional Court “at least in terms of the result”.
The lower court had dismissed the billions in May 2020 as unfounded.
A character assassination campaign was not recognizable, judged the Dortmund judges at the time.
Decision in spring
The higher regional court announced that they only wanted to give further advice on individual aspects and then give Jagdfeld and Signal Iduna the opportunity to comment.
A decision on the matter will then be announced on March 28, 2022.
In a statement, the spokesman for the Jagdfeld group said they were still confident of winning the lawsuits and assumed that Signal Iduna would be held responsible for the character assassination campaign run by their representative.
“Nobody from the Signal Iduna Group has ever spoken negatively about Mr. Jagdfeld.
The Higher Regional Court examined all other allegations intensively and presented them as inaccurate, ”said a spokesman for the Signal Iduna group after the hearing.
One is firmly convinced that this procedure will also be won.