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POOH MAY WIND UP BACK IN COURT

BURBANK - The family firm suing the Walt Disney Co. over merchandising rights to Winnie the Pooh has asked the Los Angeles court that threw out the 13-year-old suit to grant a new trial.

The motion by Stephen Slesinger Inc. responds to a March court ruling that the firm was guilty of misconduct and stealing evidence. The judge threw out the case, a move the Slesingers challenged as too harsh a sanction in their recent filing. 

Legal analysts at the time said the judge's 28-page decision to dismiss the case was designed to convince an appeals court there was no alternative to dismissing the case.

The March decision was taken as an abrupt ending to a long-running suit accusing Disney of shortchanging the family on royalties on Pooh products.

Disney, which had said a loss could cost it hundreds of millions of dollars, has since cut financial reserves against such an outcome, executives said recently. 

The Slesingers in their new motion said the court did not need to reconsider its conclusion that the firm "is dishonest and shows no remorse."

They said they would hire a new set of lawyers, which would be the ninth team to take up the case on behalf of the Slesingers, who acquired US merchandising rights to the honey-loving bear in 1930 from Pooh creator, British author A.A. Milne.

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