http://www.ocregister.com/news/bren-...-christie.html
LOS ANGELES -- Donald Bren's two out-of-wedlock children testified Monday in the fraud case they brought against their billionaire father that they didn't lack any material things growing up in Beverly Hills, but that his absence in their lives made them feel angry, hurt and abandoned.
Shortly after Bren greeted his now-adult children with a handshake before the civil trial resumed at Los Angeles County Superior Court, Christie Bren took the stand in a case expected to go to jurors by the end of the week.
Article Tab : David Leroy Bren leaves the Stanley Mosk Courthouse with his mom Jennifer Gold last week after opening arguments were presented in a civil case where multibillionaire Donald Bren is a defendant in a fraud and breach-of-contract lawsuit filed by David Leroy Bren and his sister Christie Alexis Bren. Bren fathered the children out of wedlock with Gold.
David Leroy Bren leaves the Stanley Mosk Courthouse with his mom Jennifer Gold last week after opening arguments were presented in a civil case where multibillionaire Donald Bren is a defendant in a fraud and breach-of-contract lawsuit filed by David Leroy Bren and his sister Christie Alexis Bren. Bren fathered the children out of wedlock with Gold.
H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER FILE PHOTO
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Appearing a bit nervous as she fidgeted with her hands, Christie Bren said she had only vague memories of her father, who as chairman and chief executive of the Irvine Co. has an estimated net worth of $12 billion. She said she last saw Bren and her mother, Jennifer McKay Gold, together when she was 8 or 9 years old.
Plaintiff attorney Hillel Chodos asked Christie Bren to describe her feelings about her father and their relationship growing up.
"I remember being upset that I didn't know where my dad was – where he had gone," Christie Bren said.
"How did that make you feel?" Chodos asked her.
"Sad. Abandoned."
Christie Bren, 22, and David Bren, 18, are seeking damages for the alleged fraud for the period of August 1988 through December 2002, claiming the child support their father paid them – $3 million, plus money for college and graduate school until they are 25 – fell far short of reflecting the lifestyle he was enjoying.
There is no such thing as retroactive child support in California, but the lawsuit seeks damages based on the child support they received and what they felt they should have received to share in their father's lifestyle.
They have sued their father for $400,000 a month each retroactive to the time they were born, Based on the average $4 million in monthly expenses Gold testified that Bren was spending to support his lifestyle, that works out to $400,000 a month per child – or a total of about $134 million.
Bren's lawyers dispute his monthly expenses were anything near that, estimating they were about $150,000.
Bren's attorneys contend that the "reasonable needs" of Christie and David Bren were more than met, and have totaled more than $10 million when college expenses and another $6 million Bren was ordered to pay his kids in another case are factored in.
The lawsuit was filed by Gold in 2003, when the children still were minors. In the lawsuit, Gold, now 55, alleges that Bren committed fraud by making false oral promises to her about remaining in their children's lives. Gold no longer is a party to the civil action.
Gold contends that Bren induced her to sign four private child-support agreements during their relationship that prevented her from pursuing court-ordered child support, which her attorney says would have resulted in vastly higher payments based on Bren's fortune.
Christie Bren was only on the witness stand for about 10 minutes. Under questioning by Chodos, she said she never went wanting for food or clothing and never wanted or needed something she couldn't get.
The aspiring film editor will be attending the New York Film Academy in January. Asked on cross-examination if she felt she had a privileged upbringing, Christie Bren said: "My upbringing was similar to those around me. I didn't think I was different from anyone else."
She testified that Donald Bren cut her a check so she could purchase an Audi when she got her driver's license at age 17, and that she went to private schools and took several overseas vacations.
David Bren, wearing a suit and about to head off to Boston University to study business or microbiology, said he last remembers seeing his father when he was 4 or 5. He said he remembered Donald Bren occasionally coming by his house and recalled being on his yacht in Newport Beach once.
"I had everything I needed," David Bren testified about his childhood -- everything, he said, but his biological father.
"I had a lot of anger in me for a long time and I felt really hurt," David Bren testified. "I would see my friends with their fathers and I felt I was missing out on something that I could not understand."
On cross-examination, John Quinn, Donald Bren's lead trial attorney, asked David Bren questions about studying at Oxford University in England in the summer of 2008, and of traveling to Spain, Germany, Italy, England and France while growing up.
"Did you ever feel deprived never going on a private jet?" Quinn asked.
"No," David Bren said.
"Did you ever feel deprived never going on a private yacht?"
"No."
"Is it fair to say you had a happy and healthy childhood?"
"For the most part, yes."
When the jury gets the case, they will have to decide if the plaintiff's allegations meet the four elements of fraud: Did Donald Bren make false promises? Did Bren have no intention of fulfilling those promises? Did the plaintiffs rely on those promises? And, as a result of relying on those promises, did the plaintiffs suffer any damages?
Testimony continues today before Judge Rex Heeseman.
Outside of the presence of the jury, Heeseman told lawyers he still is considering whether to let Chodos present in court photos and letters that purport to show that Bren and Gold had a loving relationship.
Although both sides acknowledge the roughly 13-year relationship was off and on, with both Bren and Gold dating others during the 1988-2002 period in question, central to the plaintiff's case is that Bren had strong feelings for Gold and the children, and hence allegedly made promises to maintain a parent-child relationship with Christie and David.
Bren, 78, has testified that he never loved Gold and that the two never discussed marriage, and that the written contracts were for financial support of his kids only and that Gold agreed to raise the children alone. He testified that he was shocked both times when Gold got pregnant; she testified he knew from the start she wasn't using a contraceptive.
Gold has testified that she and Bren often expressed their love for each other and said she lived for a year in Bren's Newport Beach home – which Bren denies. She also said she waited for 15 years to file the lawsuit only when it became clear to her that Bren would never play an active role in their children's lives.
In addition to Christie and David, Bren has two sons, Cary and Steven, by his first wife, Diane. He also has a daughter, Ashley, by his second wife, Mardelle, and a son, Hunter Donald Paul, by his current wife, Brigitte.
While she was dating Bren, Gold got engaged once to a man and twice to another man, according to court documents. She's in the process of divorcing her current husband, Jerome, who she married in 2001.
So basically these kids "feelings are hurt," because Dad didn't take them to Little League and Girl Scouts, so they feel entitled to 120,000,000. Personally I have morals and integrity. I wouldn't want to subject myself to this bull**** and just took want dude was offering and said **** it.
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