A court hearing of more than three hours Thursday did not resolve the dispute over who should be the chief executive officer of Quasar Aerospace Industries Inc.

And at the end of the hearing, which was continued to June 7, Duval County Circuit Judge L. Haldane Taylor expressed bewilderment about the legal battle over a relatively small company.

"I'm still not seeing what everybody's fighting over," Taylor said.
Quasar is a publicly traded Jacksonville-based company that owns a flight training school and a repair business at Herlong Airport on Jacksonville's Westside.

The company emerged on the scene in 2009 with a series of press releases announcing millions of dollars in pending acquisitions, but those deals never came to fruition.

"You want to raise millions, you haven't got squat now," Taylor said during the hearing in his chambers.

Joshua Henderson, who runs the flight school, testified that the flight training operations are producing revenue of $10,000 to $20,000 per month and has expenses of $6,000 to $8,000. The aircraft repair business is generating revenue of $7,000 to $12,000 a month and has expenses of $6,000, he said.

Quasar's stock was trading in the over-the-counter market, but the OTC Markets website discontinued posting quotes on the stock months ago.

The matter that landed the company in court involves a dispute over who the CEO is. Quasar founder Dean Bradley resigned in September and was replaced by Jeff DiGenova. Since then, DiGenova has accused Bradley of committing fraud, which

Bradley has denied.

But in January, company officials sympathetic to Bradley voted to oust DiGenova as CEO. DiGenova has asserted that they didn't have the authority to remove him.

Quasar filed a lawsuit in March seeking to prevent DiGenova from continuing to act as CEO, and DiGenova has counter-sued the company and Bradley. Taylor was hoping the two sides could agree Thursday on an interim CEO to run the company until the court cases could be resolved, but they couldn't.

"They don't trust you, you don't trust them," Taylor said, pointing to attorneys for both side.

Before testimony began, Taylor said he couldn't make a judgment over which side is right based on their court filings in the case.

"I don't have any idea what's true and what's not true," he said.

Taylor will continue hearing testimony in the case on June 7, but he is wondering why the case has reached his court.

"Apparently, the company is floundering at this particular point in time," he said. "I don't see where you have the money to spend on litigation."

mark.basch@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4308