Rostack Investments Inc. v. Sabella

Breach Of Contract

Los Angeles County

Superior Court Judge Holly J. Fujie

$69 Million

Plaintiffs Attorneys: Mayer Brown Llp, John Nadolenco, Neil M. Solton, Matthew H. Marmolejo, Daniel D. Queen, Jennifer M. Chang, Christopher P. Murphy, Sandor A. Callahan

Defense Attorneys: Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, LLP, Richard J. Doren, Julian W. Poon, Timothy W. Loose, Michael J. Holecek

John Nadolenco

When one of Hong Kong's richest men, the multi-billionaire founder of Rostack Investments Inc., loaned his daughter $30 million to buy a Utah ranch in the mid-1990s, a court battle over repayment of the money lasted 11 years and resulted in October 2021 in a $70 million win for the late founder's Rostack company plus $20 million in attorney fees for the winning team at Mayer Brown LLP.

"Endurance was a chief requirement," said lead plaintiff's attorney John Nadolenco.

The issue was whether daughter Angela Sabella had to repay the money or did not because her father, Chen Din-Hwa, had forgiven the loan. Chen's company Rostack first won on summary judgment in 2014. A state appellate panel reversed in 2016, finding unresolved a fact issue over whether Chen wrote the word "got" on a 2005 family document, allegedly indicating he intended the money to be a gift. Rostack Investments Inc. v. Angela C. Sabella, BC428298 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Dec. 18, 2009).

Nadolenco said the nine-day bench trial featured two Perry Mason moments as he and his team sought to cast doubt on Angela Sabella's account of how the key annotation occurred. Though Angela described a family meeting in Hong Kong at which her father wrote the word as she and her sister Vivien looked on, Nadolenco produced evidence that Vivien was in San Francisco on the day in question.

"That set the tone for our attack on her credibility," Nadolenco said. And when Angela then changed her account, Nadolenco and colleagues elicited testimony from a Hong Kong lawyer who showed the court documents by the father that further damaged Angela's version.

"Angela kept changing her story in response to new evidence, but her explanations didn't make sense and hurt her credibility," said Daniel D. Queen, a member of the plaintiff's team.

"A highlight for me was working with an incredibly talented and well-organized team that put on a case that put big holes in the defense case," added Mayer Brown's Matthew H. Marmolejo.

Defense lawyers declined to comment. Miller Barondess LLP was counsel at the 2014 summary judgment stage. Gibson Dunn joined for the appeal and appeared as trial counsel last year. Miller Barondess then substituted in for ongoing post-trial proceedings and has now been replaced by Larson LLP.

- John Roemer

Matthew H. Marmolejo

Daniel D. Queen