A McCracken County jury concluded Wednesday that businessman Simon Michelson was not entitled to any money in a dispute with Paducah Bank.

Michelson, 64, brought suit against the bank, claiming the bank used money he had in a retirement account to pay off bank loans he had taken out to start a climate-controlled, self-storage business in 1999. It took the 10-man, 2-woman jury about an hour to return the verdict.

Michelson claimed he never gave the bank permission to use the money. But bank officials said Michelson directed them to withdraw the money from the retirement account.

Simon Michelson at one time owned Michelson Jewelers with his brother, Louis. He retired from the jewelry business in 1990 and sold his part of the business to his brother. Louis Michelson bought the business by making monthly payments to a trust that was set up in Simon Michelson's name as a retirement account, or trust.

At the time Simon Michelson took out roughly $300,000 in loans for the self-storage business, the trust had almost $700,000, according to Kerry Smith, Michelson's attorney.

Smith said there was nothing in writing that gave Paducah Bank permission to take the money from the retirement account. Because Michelson was not 59 at the time, the withdrawal triggered taxes and penalties, he said.

Attorney David Kelly, who represented the bank, said Michelson had been a customer at the bank for decades. "He's the type that banks do things for," he told the jurors.

Kelly said Michelson knew what he was doing when he had the money taken from the IRA, and he knew he had to pay the taxes and penalties.

"He wants to play the role of victim and not accept any responsibility," Kelly said during the trial.

Smith conceded during the trial that Michelson did engage in reckless behavior. "Simon didn't have clean hands and Simon brought himself down, but this bank didn't have clean hands either," he said.

Smith said the bank saw Michelson floundering with his struggling self-storage business and decided to take advantage of him to benefit the bank.

Special Circuit Judge Bill Cunningham presided over the three-day trial because of a conflict with McCracken Circuit judges Jeff Hines and Craig Clymer.

As published in the Paducah Sun on July 21, 2005
By Anne Thrower athrower@paducahsun.com--270.575.8653