Thursday, October 28, 2004

Homestore Loses Lawsuit

Westlake Village-based Homestore announced this morning that it has received a ruling in its litigation between the company and former officer Peter Tafeen. The ruling said that Homestore must provide all reasonable attorney's fees and costs in connection with the SEC and Department of Justice investigations against Tafeen for his role in a scheme to inflate Homestore's revenues, along with court costs. Tafeen was in charge of Homestore's business affairs, and had sued Homestore to have the company advance defense costs based on the company's bylaws. Those bylaws included a indemnification provision that stated that the company is required to indemnify an officer or director, and advance defense costs for any lawsuit where they were acting in good faith. Homestore said that it is considering its options, including an appeal of the decision.