NEW YORK (AFX) - A New York State judge dismissed a civil lawsuit that former New York Stock Exchange chief Dick Grasso had brought against H. Carl McCall, a former Big Board director and one-time New York State comptroller.
The suit was part of an ongoing legal battle between Grasso and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who is suing Grasso for receiving allegedly excessive pay as head of what was then a not-for-profit exchange.
Grasso, who left the Big Board in 2003, says he is still due more than $50 million from the exchange. The 60-year-old former Big Board boss filed a countersuit against McCall, arguing that since McCall headed the exchange compensation committee when Grasso's last employment contract was approved, McCall should be partly to blame if a court determined that the pay package was indeed inappropriate.
In an 11-page decision, New York Judge Charles E. Ramos said McCall couldn't be held responsible for Grasso being excessively compensated if a judge or jury comes to that conclusion. Grasso 'fails to establish any special duty owed him by McCall, or any specific misrepresentations made by McCall that provide a sufficient basis for Grasso's cause of action,' Judge Ramos wrote in his ruling.
A spokesman for McCall said he was pleased with the judge's ruling but declined to comment further because the overall pay case is continuing.
Grasso plans to appeal the McCall ruling, according to Gerson Zweifach, one of his lead attorneys on the case.
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