Legal Battle
June 13, 2007
In the long-running legal battle between Kirch and Germany's biggest bank, Kirch alleges Breuer helped precipitate the fall of his once-sprawling media empire and is suing Deutsche Bank and its former chief for compensation.
The battle dates back to February 2002, when Breuer, who was Deutsche Bank's CEO at the time, publicly questioned the credit-worthiness of the Kirch group in a television interview.
Kirch argues that Breuer's comments directly led to the collapse of his debt-laden media empire, which filed for insolvency later that year.
Deutsche Bank and Breuer countered that Kirch's financial problems were already well known and that Breuer's comments came under personal freedom of expression.
Ongoing saga
In 2003, a court in Munich found in Kirch's favor, at least in principle, without actually ordering Deutsche Bank to pay concrete damages, for which Kirch would have to sue separately.
Not satisfied by the ruling, both sides appealed to the Federal Supreme Court, the Bundesgerichtshof.
Germany's highest court then found in January 2006 that Deutsche Bank and Breuer were indeed liable in principle for the collapse of at least part of the Kirch group, which was one of Germany's most spectacular corporate failures.
But since Deutsche Bank was only the creditor of one of Kirch's companies, PrintBeteiligungs GmbH, and had contravened its contractual obligations only towards that particular unit, it was only liable to pay the damages for that company.
The judges also said the bank was not responsible for the collapse of the entire Kirch group.
A new trial
A court spokesman said Wednesday that the new trial would begin by next spring at the latest.
Kirch's lawyers will have to show how the former media magnate calculated that he was due 1.2 billion euros in compensation.
Deutsche Bank said it was not worried by the claims, which it said were "unfounded."
The bank expected the court to reject Kirch's claims, a spokesman said.
"The suit is an attempt by Mr. Kirch to divert attention from his own responsibility for the collapse of his group," he added.