The Nevada Supreme Court has upheld a ruling against Chris Milam, who has been working to develop a stadium in Henderson, in a case involving an unrelated development.
The court on Wednesday upheld a 2010 ruling by Clark County District Court Judge Mark Denton, who found Milam was involved in fraud and breach of fiduciary duty involving a failed plan to develop luxury condominiums west of the Hard Rock hotel-casino in Las Vegas.
Denton’s ruling says Milam misappropriated $1.1 million contributed by condo investors and falsely claimed the $1.1 million was his personal equity contribution to the project.
Problems with the condo development caused a business relationship between Milam and Peter Morton, developer of the Hard Rock, to collapse.
In the lawsuit Denton presided over, Milam initially consented to judgment damages being entered against him for the $1.1 million but later changed his mind and tried to fight the judgment.
Investors owed the $1.1 million said Milam’s decision to consent to the judgment was a deliberate choice as part of his litigation strategy, and they urged the Supreme Court to reject his appeal.
“We conclude that the motion for summary judgment sufficiently demonstrated a basis for holding Milam liable, and, as the District Court had sufficient grounds to deem the summary judgment motion unopposed and thus meritorious, it properly granted summary judgment,” the Supreme Court wrote in its ruling.
Justice James Hardesty dissented from the ruling, writing that Milam, appearing in the District Court lawsuit without an attorney, “did not have an opportunity to be fully heard.”