J&F to pay compensation of BRL 30,000 to the director of Paper Excellence in Brazil
The case marks a turning point, in which the company that filed the lawsuit was ordered to pay compensation after the judge understood that the holding company engaged in litigation in bad faith
The Batista brothers’ holding company, J&F Investimentos, was sentenced in court to pay compensation of R$30,000 to the Managing Director of Paper Excellence in Brazil, Cláudio Cotrim, according to columnist Júlio Wiziack, from Folha de São Paulo. Both companies are still in a legal dispute over the control of Eldorado Celulose.
The sentence came after J&F sued Cotrim alleging slander and defamation over an interview with Folha in 2019, in which the director claimed to have received a request from the Batistas for Paper Excellence to pay BRL 6 billion more shortly after the signing of the agreement of selling its shares.
According to Cláudio, the company paid BRL 3.8 billion for 49.41% of Eldorado and would have to pay another BRL 4.1 billion for total control of the company (50.69% of the shares). However, according to the executive, with the valuation of the pulp producer, the majority shareholder demanded BRL 10.8 billion for the remaining shares.
J&F denied the court having made such a demand and filed the lawsuit. However, Judge Guilherme Ferreira da Cruz, of the Court of Justice of São Paulo, confirmed the veracity of Cotrim’s statements when analyzing one of J&F’s petitions in another process, in which the two companies litigated for the control of Eldorado – in which the holding itself declared that it had asked for BRL 6 billion more to hand over control of Eldorado.
Thus, the magistrate understood that J&F practiced bad faith litigation and, therefore, condemned the company in the action it had filed against the Managing Director of Paper Excelence. After this sentence, the Batista company appealed three times to the STJ (Supreme Court of Justice), but, last week, the final decision was issued. Since there is no appeal, the company must pay compensation to Cláudio Cotrim.
“I will donate the full amount of the fine. The most important thing is that the Justice recognized, in all instances, that my statements are true and that there was no intention to defame”, declared the Managing Director of Paper Excellence.
