HOUSTON (AP) Texaco Inc. yesterday asked a state appeals courtto set aside the multibillion-dollar judgment ordering Texaco to payrival Pennzoil Co. for wrongfully interfering with a plannedPennzoil-Getty Oil Co. merger.
"There's not a shred of evidence in the record to say thatTexaco knew (of any contract between Pennzoil and Getty)," attorneyRichard Keaton said in arguments before the 1st Court of Appeals."There was no contract and Texaco had no knowledge even if therewas."
But Pennzoil's lead attorney, Joe Jamail, insisted Getty andPennzoil had an agreement - and that Texaco was aware of it.
"It is as brazen an interference with another contract as I haveever seen," another Pennzoil attorney, Simon Rivkind, told thethree-judge panel.
In November, a Houston jury found Texaco wrongfully interferedin the planned Pennzoil-Getty merger in 1984 and ordered Texaco topay $10.53 billion in damages to Pennzoil. The judgment remains thelargest in U.S. history.
State District Judge Solomon Casseb Jr., who stepped in aspresiding trial judge when Judge Anthony Farris became ill, upheldthe damage award, added another $600 million in interest, and saidinterest would continue to accrue at a rate of 10 percent a year.
As of yesterday, the bill for interest - at $3 million a day -was up to $708 million.
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