Jury awards $77M in case against Wells Fargo

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri jury has awarded a woman $77 million in damages in a lawsuit alleging Wells Fargo Bank mismanaged her family trusts, costing her tens of millions of dollars.

The St. Louis County jury, after a trial of more than two weeks, sided this week with 78-year-old Barbara Burton Morriss of the St. Louis suburb of Olivette, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Morriss sued Wells Fargo in early 2012, alleging the bank breached its fiduciary duty by failing to fully disclose financial transactions in two family trusts that lost millions of dollars.
Wells Fargo spokeswoman Vince Scanlon said the bank was considering its legal options, including whether to appeal.

Morriss was a beneficiary and co-trustee on both trusts with her son, venture capitalist B. Douglas Morris.

That man, who is serving five years in federal prison for tax evasion, had helped raise through his Clayton-based venture and other companies tens of millions of dollars in private equity and venture capital funds until the companies he led filed for bankruptcy in January 2012, listing more than $35 million in debts.

Barbara Morriss, the widow of a former Boatmen’s Trust Co. chairman, alleged that funds in both trusts were wrongfully pledged as collateral for risky business ventures — something she became aware of after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused her son of defrauding investors in January 2012.