Settlement Between Businessman, Relatives Overrides Large Verdict Award

A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit brought against the founder of the multimillion-dollar real estate business Kobeissi Properties in La Canada-Flintridge, which alleged he sexually abused two male relatives when they were children.

The accord overrides a Burbank Superior Court jury’s verdict last July awarding the now-adult brothers more than $12 million each for past and future pain and suffering and also resolves a related fraud action they filed against businessman Mike Kobeissi.

Kobeissi came to the U.S. from Lebanon as a teenager in 1982. 

The lawsuit, filed in October 2018, alleged that while Kobeissi was staying with a relative, he began sexually abusing the relative’s two sons by going into their rooms late at night for more than a decade.

Defense attorney Jerry Kaplan said after the trial that the vote in favor of the plaintiffs was 9-3 and that the dissenters believed nothing happened to the brothers.

“We think it’s a miscarriage of justice,” Kaplan said.

The notice of settlement filed Feb. 14 with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Christopher K. Lui does not state the accord’s terms.