WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Allegations of jury tampering threatened to turn the $2.7 billion case against Morgan Stanley into a mistrial after a client of Ron Perelman's counsel allegedly questioned three jurors outside the courthouse.

Ron Perelman, chairman of Revlon Cosmetics, is suing investment banking firm Morgan Stanley for their advisory role in the sale of his company, camping-equipment maker Coleman, to Sunbeam in 1998.

Morgan Stanley acted as Sunbeam's investment banker in the $1.5 billion deal that Perelman alleges cost him $680 million. 

According to one of the three jurors, a man later identified as Jim Comyns approached them before court Monday and tried to elicit information about the trial.

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Perelman's lawyer John Scarola is representing Comyns in a separate and unrelated case. According to lawyers on both sides, Comyns has attended several days of the Perelman trial.

Morgan Stanley attorney Mark Hansen claimed the three jurors were targeted for being sympathetic to the firm's position in the case. Hansen said the tampering was an attempt by the other side to have the jurors removed. 

Scarola denied being a party to the incident and requested Comyns be deposed to set the record straight.

Hansen did not deem a sworn deposition as sufficient and moved for a mistrial for the second time in as many days. Although Scarola fiercely denied the accusation, he said he could not disagree with the defendant's motion for a mistrial.

"We have no reason to believe that this jury has engaged in any form of misconduct," Scarola said. "We feel the public accusations cast doubt on our ability to receive a fair trial."

In an effort to proceed with the trial, Judge Maass encouraged counsel from both sides to consider the tremendous expense the case has cost the county and state. She also requested that any motion for a mistrial not be a tactical move.

Both sides reiterated their positions and Judge Elizabeth Maass said she would rule on the matter at a later date, but that they would continue with the trial.

After the decision, economist Dr. Blaine Nye resumed his testimony. 

Loss analysis

Nye, a former Dallas Cowboys football player and Stanford graduate, told jurors that Perelman's company Coleman Holdings did not receive anything of value when it accepted 14.1 million shares of Sunbeam stock in exchange for Perelman's controlling stake in Coleman.

Nye said he took an average of the stock prices for Sunbeam shares from the day the deal was announced to the date it was closed in estimating Perelman's losses. The average stock price was $48.26 for the period that included March 2 through March 30, 1998. After filing for bankruptcy protection in 2001, Sunbeam's shares became essentially worthless.

On cross examination, the defense attempted to discredit Nye's methods in calculating Perelman's losses by questioning the witness over the assumptions and projections he used.

Hansen showed several internal documents from Perelman's holding company, MacAndrews & Forbes, which valued the Sunbeam stock he received in exchange for his Coleman shares at $450 million, instead of the $680 million that Nye calculated.

Nye agreed he did not consider the internal documents in his valuations.

Perelman, who is married to actress Ellen Barkin, contends Morgan Stanley knew of accounting irregularities at Sunbeam and intentionally misled him when he sold his 82 percent stake in Coleman to the company. 

Perelman is expected  to return to the stand Tuesday.

The case is being tried in the 15th Judicial Circuit Court in Palm Beach County.

The trial is being streamed live on Court TV Extra.