Norwegian Cruise Line and former CEO Kevin Sheehan defeated a $90 million defamation and breach of contract lawsuit Monday filed by Sheehan's predecessor, Colin Veitch.

A Miami-Dade jury ruled against Veitch on all counts after a one-week trial before Judge William Thomas. The trial included testimony from former chief executives, whose bad blood boiled over when Veitch filed a lawsuit alleging Sheehan trashed him in the press and shafted him during the conversion of profits units.

Veitch led the cruise line company from 2000 to 2008, when Sheehan took the helm until leaving Norwegian in 2015. The defamation claim initially arose from an email Sheehan sent the trade publication Travel Weekly after it praised Veitch's legacy at the company in a 2014 piece. Sheehan criticized his predecessor's work, calling two of his initiatives “a mess.”

When Veitch filed a defamation lawsuit over the email, the Miami Herald sought comment from Norwegian and was told it included “outrageous and false” allegations about Sheehan. That statement led to a second defamation claim from Veitch.

“This was the pinnacle of the man's career,” Veitch's attorney Jeff Gutchess of AXS Law Group in Miami said Friday during closing arguments. “This was not only getting a nice job, but this was changing an industry in spectacular ways. He was very proud of his legacy, but now he sees it in black and white that this man has been systematically ripping that apart.”

Gutchess requested $90 million in damages during closings for the alleged damage to Veitch's reputation and for allegedly shortchanging Veitch and other ex-employees by millions of dollars during the conversion of company profits units.

But Holland & Knight partner Sanford “Sandy” Bohrer, arguing on behalf of Sheehan and Norwegian, said Veitch suffered no damages. In the conversion, the company followed the agreement that was in place. And Veitch didn't even know about the Travel Weekly email until it was forwarded to him by someone in the company, Bohrer said.

“I think it's fair to say that Mr. Sheehan was strong, even harsh … but Mr. Sheehan's manner of communicating was quite restrained, if you think about it,” Bohrer told the jury during closing arguments. “He didn't plant something in the Miami Herald. He didn't surreptitiously plant something on the internet. … On the letter to the editor, you'd need a microscope to find any damages.”

Bohrer declined to comment and Gutchess did not immediately respond to a request for comment.