A Florida jury has delivered a stunning US$50 million verdict against Toronto businessman Harold Peerenboom, concluding a bizarre 14-year feud with reclusive American billionaire Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter, the former CEO of Marvel Entertainment.
From Tennis Court to Courtroom
What began as a petty dispute over tennis between two wealthy, strong-willed neighbors in their shared ocean-front Florida community escalated into an extraordinary legal battle featuring claims of hate mail campaigns and international conspiracies to obtain DNA.
The Palm Beach County jury needed less than four hours on Friday to reach its decision, awarding $16,011 in damages to Isaac Perlmutter and $50,016,011 to his wife, Laura Perlmutter.
The Unusual Protagonists
Both central figures in this drama are notable for their vast self-made wealth and formidable personalities. Harold Peerenboom, 78, built his fortune through Mandrake, a successful Canadian executive search firm he founded after moving from Thunder Bay to Toronto.
His adversary, Isaac Perlmutter, 82, once described as "pathologically private" by Hollywood Reporter, famously oversaw Marvel Entertainment's transformation into a cinematic powerhouse before selling to Disney for $4 billion in 2009.
While previously reclusive—reportedly attending the 2008 Iron Man premiere in disguise—Perlmutter has recently become more visible in political circles, photographed alongside Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago and in the Oval Office.
A Conflict That Went Too Far
As the dispute evolved beyond tennis, it grew into what lawyers described as a campaign of harassment that crossed numerous boundaries. Joshua Dubin, attorney for the Perlmutters, summarized the case bluntly: "I think that Mr. Peerenboom picked a fight with the wrong people. And he took it too far."
The case revealed extraordinary allegations including what court documents described as "an international conspiracy" to take, analyze and share the Florida couple's DNA, along with prolific hate-mail campaigns.
After nearly a decade of legal wrangling and years of conflict before that, the swift jury verdict brings at least partial closure to one of the most unusual feuds between two wealthy businessmen, proving that even billionaires aren't immune to neighborhood disputes gone terribly wrong.
