Tort Reform Advocate Who Made Stock Bet on Wal-Mart Sees Loss Despite Being Right
Tort-reform advocate Ted Frank was right when he predicted the U.S. Supreme Court would rule for Wal-Mart, but a stock bet he made turned out to be wrong.
Frank was so confident that the Supreme Court would rule against workers seeking class-action status in a huge lawsuit against Wal-Mart that he put 10 percent of his net worth on the line. He invested the money in call contracts that bet Wal-Mart stock would bounce after the Supreme Court issued his decision.
Since then the Greek debt crisis has sent stocks lower, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports. To make matters worse, Frank was in court challenging the $3.4 billion Indian trust settlement on Monday, and he missed a bump in Wal-Mart’s stock price that lasted about an hour. By putting duty first, Frank missed a chance to lessen his losses.
Frank tells the Law Blog he has lost “tens of thousands” of dollars on his stock bet. “If Greece had been paying its bills on time and I wasn’t in court, I might have seen a small profit,” he said.
Frank made the stock bet with money he acquired over the years from gambling wins.
