RAPAPORT...  U.S. Diamond & Gold Jewelers Inc. -- parent company of Dayton, Ohio-based Stafford Jewelers -- was awarded at least $6.9 million in compensatory damages plus attorneys' fees in a case before the U.S. District Court. The verdict, delivered by the jury on November 18, was against Julius Klein Diamonds of New York.

This case arose after a 5.56-carat natural, fancy, intense pink diamond, valued at a wholesale price of between $1.5 million and $2 million, disappeared more than two years ago. It was shipped by Stafford Jewelers to Julius Klein Diamonds in Manhattan, where it was to be graded by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), and then either purchased or returned to Stafford Jewelers with the certificate, attorneys for Stafford Jewelers stated.  Julius Klein Diamonds contended that it never received the diamond.

After the jury heard the evidence in the case, they found that Julius Klein Diamonds was "unjustly enriched by its acquisition of the valuable pink diamond without compensating Stafford Jewelers; that Julius Klein Diamonds wrongfully converted and exercised dominion and control over the pink diamond; and that Julius Klein Diamonds was found liable of civil liability for a criminal act," according to a statement issued by Stafford Jewelers' attorneys.

"The jury also found unanimously that Julius Klein Diamonds knowingly participated in or ratified the acts of an agent or servant that demonstrated malice," the statement read.

Dianne Marx of the law firm Sebaly Shillito + Dyer, who represented Stafford Jewelers, said, “The jury sent a strong, strong message that this kind of conduct absolutely will not be tolerated in our society.”

 


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