Tribune price stands, judge reiterates

A federal judge will not reconsider an earlier order that upheld a $331 million appraised value for the Salt Lake Tribune.

U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell also ruled Wednesday that it is too late for former Tribune owners to amend a previously filed complaint alleging the appraiser had engaged in fraud, misconduct or wrongdoing.

Campbell's rulings will be appealed, said Philip McCarthey, spokesman for the McCarthey family and chairman of Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Co., a past owner of the newspaper.

Campbell in October affirmed the appraised value for the newspaper by striking down Tribune Publishing's claim that an appraisal arranged between Tribune Publishing and the paper's current owner, MediaNews Group Inc., contained mistakes and was too high.

The appraisal was conducted by New Jersey-based Management Planning Inc.

Tribune Publishing then filed a motion asking Campbell to reconsider her decision and filed another motion asking to amend a separate complaint filed earlier suggesting possible fraud associated with the appraiser.

Campbell said in a four-page written decision denying both motions that, in her opinion, the Tribune Publishing wanted a reconsideration of her October ruling because she "skipped" some steps by not looking at New Jersey standards for arbitration awards.

"The court did not 'skip' any critical steps in the analysis regarding New Jersey statutory law governing arbitrations because the court expressly held that the MPI Appraisal was not an arbitration under New Jersey law," Campbell wrote.

Tribune Publishing's reason for a reconsideration "is based on an incorrect reading of the court's opinion," Campbell wrote.

Regarding the request to amend an earlier complaint to allege fraud, Campbell said Tribune Publishing had "ample opportunity" to do so earlier and that the "time and opportunity to amend the complaint have passed."

The drawn-out legal battle over the newspaper's ownership is probably not over, even though the federal court's involvement is winding down.

"She said no to both motions. That means this case, which challenges the appraisal, is over in federal district court," said Kevin Baines, an attorney who represents Kearns-Tribune, which is allied with the new owners MediaNews Group Inc.

McCarthey, however, promised that "the struggle will continue. We will have to appeal this decision" to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

At the center of the dispute is Tribune Publishing's exercise of a 1997 purchase option agreement that it maintains allowed it to sell the newspaper but also gave it the right to buy it back. The newspaper was sold to a company that was then acquired by AT&T, which sold the Tribune to MediaNews in January 2001.

In an attempt to exercise the purchase option and buy the paper back from its current owner, fair market value was to be determined by appraisals from each side. When the valuations came in millions of dollars apart, a third appraisal was done. Management Planning Inc. set the newspaper's value at $331 million and when averaged with the earlier appraisals, the price tag for the newspaper came to $355.5 million.

Tribune Publishing officials refused to accept the appraisal by Management Planning Inc., calling it faulty, and took the matter to court. They pointed out MediaNews purchased the paper for $200 million.

Sale of the Salt Lake Tribune - Read Deseret News' archive stories and see related links about the sale of the Tribune.

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E-mail: lindat@desnews.com