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Court reinstates beef jerky award

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin appeals court on Tuesday reinstated a $5 million damage award in a family feud involving one of the world’s largest beef jerky companies.

The feud involves the family that owns Link Snacks Inc., which calls itself the leader in the $3 billion meat snack industry and is known for its “Messin’ with Sasquatch” ad campaign.

A years-long dispute has pitted company founder and chief executive Jack Link against his son Jay Link, who contends he was unfairly cut out of the business by his father and brother Troy Link in 2005. Jack Link, who started Link Snacks in 1985, claims Jay Link interfered with a relationship with a supplier and violated the terms of a family ownership agreement. After a trial last year, a jury found both sides at fault.

At issue in Tuesday’s decision by the District 3 Court of Appeals in Wausau was how much Jack Link should have to pay his son in punitive damages for breaching his fiduciary duty to him. The jury had awarded $5 million, but a judge later found that excessive and reduced it to $736,000.

The appeals court reinstated the full $5 million award. The three-judge panel said Jack Link’s attorney filed a motion to reduce the damages award one day after the legal deadline, and so the judge was wrong to consider it.

The court also said there was plenty of evidence that Jack Link acted “either maliciously or with an intentional disregard of Jay’s rights,” the legal standard needed to justify punitive damages.

The judges pointed to evidence that Jack Link unilaterally stripped Jay Link of his responsibilities as chief operating officer in Link Snacks and other family companies while Jay Link was on vacation in 2004 without consulting their boards or bylaws.

In a memo, Jack Link wrote he was “reasserting my control over worldwide meatsnack operations.”