Carl Hirschmann: Things Money Can Buy

Last month, Carl Hirschmann’s lawyers put a spike into court proceedings under way. Now the Court of Appeal of Basel announced that proceedings against him had been closed without verdict. And a third case never reached courts, it was revealed at the same time. Things a lot of money can buy.

In December 2009, Carl Hirschmann was found guilty at a court hearing in Basel of having assaulted and caused bodily harm to a man in a bar. The claimant had asked for damages of $100,000 and received $5,000 plus the same amount in legal costs while Carl fined with $1,000. Hirschmann’s lawyers appealed against the verdict. Now the Court of Appeal issued a statement that the case had been closed without verdict as the claimant had retracted his claim. It’s astonishing what a few hundred million Dollars at your disposal can do for you.

In March 2010, Carl Hirschmann hit out again, this time in the Grand Hotel Dolder in Zurich. The case never came to court. In a refreshingly frank statement from Hirschmann’s lawyers, they confirmed that the damaged parties in both cases had been bought off in out-of-court proceedings together with some spat in Gstaad. The spat at the Dolder would probably have gone unnoticed by the wider public if the parties involved had refrained from a prolonged tug of war in the tabloids.

At the same time, Hirschmann was arrested for alleged sexual harassment in one case and alleged sexual acts on a minor in a second. After paying a $500,000 deposit, he was allowed to remain at large with the injunction of not leaving Zurich. While these cases were going on, the further case of his girlfriend was added to the list. She claimed that Carl had assaulted her during their relationship and that he had threatened her future bodily harm and disclosure of intimate photos. This case had been already on record but was under an injunction on request of the claimant. The injunction blew up in the judge’s face only because the press was just filing into the court building for another hearing while Hirschmann and his ex left it after their hearing.

The verdict on the two cases with sexual connotations should have been passed end of August but the lawyers pulled a stopper on that at the last minute. Claiming bias on part of the single judge dealing with the case, they played for time. After disclosure of the multiple retractions they probably hope to clear these cases in the same way to get their hands free for the real clincher of Hirschmann’s ex.

The problem with that latter case lies in the nature of the demands made by the claimant. She demands that Carl countermands his threats under oath and pays an adequate deposit to substantiate his oath. On the outside this might look easy. If he didn’t threaten her, he could just swear on it and pay the deposit. The crux of that is, this would be counted as an admission of guilt and he would be prosecuted for blackmail by the state attorney. The judge in that case therefore has to come to a decision of whether he was guilty or not and accordingly demand the oath or not. Obviously, having a previous conviction for sexual harassment or sexual acts on a minor would be unhelpful, to say the least.

The article was originally published on Triond on 06/10/10.

Further reading
When a Sassy Headline Becomes an Embarrassment
Carl Hirschmann Repeat Performances
Poor Rich Boy: Carl Hirschmann