Harry Helmsley

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected three appeals raising the issue of whether skyrocketing punitive-damage awards in personal injury lawsuits violate due-process rights. The decisions came one week after the court suggested that it would be willing to decide such cases. Without comment, the justices turned away the case of a $17.8-million award won by ventriloquist Paul Winchell over the destruction of all videotapes of his popular children's television show of the 1960s.

Donald J. Trump said Tuesday that rival developer Leona Helmsley has agreed to sell a piece of Boardwalk property in Atlantic City, N.J., apparently ending a nasty dispute between the New York real estate magnates that flared into public view a month ago. According to Trump, Helmsley agreed to sell the small parcel, which he needs for plans to build a non-casino hotel on the Boardwalk. Helmsley "totally conceded defeat" in her "attempt to deprive me of something to which I am entitled," said Trump, who last month denounced Helmsley in a letter to her that was leaked to the New York Post.

Donald Trump, the billionaire developer who's been called a few names himself, has called real estate executive Leona (The Queen) Helmsley "a disgrace" and a destroyer of her husband's reputation, it was reported today. The New York Post quoted an anonymous source close to Trump as saying the impetus for the attack was a dispute about a Helmsley-owned piece of property in Atlantic City. The newspaper said Trump wrote Leona Helmsley on April 5: "When God created Leona, the world received no favors.

Leona and Harry Helmsley emerged from a silver stretch limousine under slate-gray skies a little more than a week ago to be fingerprinted, photographed, booked and arraigned among drug dealers and thieves in the Manhattan criminal courthouse. Clad in a fire-truck-red coat-dress with blue velvet lapels, Leona Helmsley held her head high, linked arms with her husband and smiled at the mass of reporters outside the courthouse. Asked for comment, they replied only, "Good morning."