Cablevision Systems Corp. directors were sued by an investor for wrongfully approving “grossly excessive” compensation for Chairman Charles Dolan and members of his family who serve as executives of the fifth-largest U.S. cable company.
The board of Bethpage, N.Y.-based Cablevision, which includes Dolan’s three daughters, approved more than $80 million in compensation for the firm’s founder and his son over a three-year period starting in 2010 while the company racked up losses, according to a Delaware Chancery Court lawsuit.
“It is impossible to see the payments as anything but grossly excessive and unfair to the company and its public stockholders,” lawyers for Gary Livingston, the shareholder who sued, said in a court filing.
The complaint about pay at Cablevision comes as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission weighs a proposal to require corporations to disclose how much more their chief executives earn than rank-and-file employees. The pay-ratio disclosures are mandated by a provision in the Dodd-Frank Act.
Livingston’s case is an example of “baseless shareholder lawsuits designed simply to enrich the plaintiff and his lawyers,” Charles Schueler, a Cablevision spokesman, said Monday in an emailed statement. He added that the Dolan family “created extraordinary shareholder value” for Cablevision investors over the past 40 years.
Cablevision fell almost 1 percent, or 18 cents, to $17.97 on Monday.
Cablevision executives said in February that revenue from cable operations in the fourth quarter rose more than 5 percent to $1.4 billion. Cablevision serves about 3 million customers in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
The board of Bethpage, N.Y.-based Cablevision, which includes Dolan’s three daughters, approved more than $80 million in compensation for the firm’s founder and his son over a three-year period starting in 2010 while the company racked up losses, according to a Delaware Chancery Court lawsuit.
“It is impossible to see the payments as anything but grossly excessive and unfair to the company and its public stockholders,” lawyers for Gary Livingston, the shareholder who sued, said in a court filing.
The complaint about pay at Cablevision comes as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission weighs a proposal to require corporations to disclose how much more their chief executives earn than rank-and-file employees. The pay-ratio disclosures are mandated by a provision in the Dodd-Frank Act.
Livingston’s case is an example of “baseless shareholder lawsuits designed simply to enrich the plaintiff and his lawyers,” Charles Schueler, a Cablevision spokesman, said Monday in an emailed statement. He added that the Dolan family “created extraordinary shareholder value” for Cablevision investors over the past 40 years.
Cablevision fell almost 1 percent, or 18 cents, to $17.97 on Monday.
Cablevision executives said in February that revenue from cable operations in the fourth quarter rose more than 5 percent to $1.4 billion. Cablevision serves about 3 million customers in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.