Jury to deliberate satellite case pitting ICO Global against Boeing
The telecommunications firm hopes to get its plan for offering services to mobile users off the ground.
A legal battle that could play a key role in the future of wireless phone pioneer Craig McCaw's dream to provide video and other services to mobile users around the globe is now in the hands of a Los Angeles jury.
The dispute pits billionaire McCaw and ICO Global Telecommunications against aerospace giant Boeing Co. and stems from a decade-old plan to launch a network of satellites that would transmit an array of mobile services, including TV programming, navigation and roadside assistance to earthbound users.
The venture stalled, and ICO is now seeking more than $2 billion in damages and interest from its former contractor.
The trial began in June before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Emilie H. Elias, and attorneys for ICO and Boeing delivered their final arguments Thursday and Friday. The eight-man, four-woman jury was expected to begin deliberations today.
A win in the courtroom would provide a significant boost for Virginia-based ICO, which was revived from bankruptcy eight years ago by an investor group led by McCaw, who is chairman of ICO.
The court battle dates to the company's origins in the 1990s, when ICO contracted with El Segundo-based Hughes Electronics Corp. to build and launch a dozen satellites that would form the basis of its globe-girdling network.
Only two of the satellites were ever finished. One of those was lost when the rocket carrying it into space exploded. The second made it into orbit but is of little use without the 10 others, which sit almost completed in a local warehouse.
Boeing inherited the problem when it bought Hughes' satellite business in 2000 and, according to ICO attorneys, made matters worse by demanding that ICO pay an additional $400 million to finish the job it had originally hired Hughes to perform.
Moreover, ICO contends, Boeing itself had gotten into the satellite-based communications business and now viewed its erstwhile customer as a competitor.
"Despite the damage inflicted by Boeing, we're still here," ICO attorney Barry W. Lee told the jury last week. "But that's not what Boeing wanted. Boeing wanted ICO dead and gone."
Boeing originally sued ICO in 2004 after ICO terminated its contract for the satellites. ICO countersued, accusing Boeing of breach of contract and fraud, among other things. ICO is seeking around $1.5 billion in actual damages -- more than $2 billion with interest -- and unspecified punitive damages.
