A federal appeals court has thrown out a $1.8-billion award granted by a lower court three years ago to an AECOM unit in a bizarre legal battle involving a Nevada company that claimed to have won multiple contracts using the name of Morrison Knudsen—the former well-known Boise-based construction contractor that was sold in 1996, and through acquisitions, became part of design-build giant AECOM in 2014.
The appellate judges did not alter the lower court’s injunction halting use of the fake MK name in a long-running internet manipulation, but they ruled March 24 that the award was excessive.