After more than five years of litigation, a former judge's breach-of-contract case against the creator of “The Sopranos” boils down to three days the two men spent together exploring “the world of organized crime.”

The only claim of Judge Robert V. Baer that went to trial this week in Newark, N.J., federal court involves “quasi-contractual recovery for services rendered when a party confers a benefit with a reasonable expectation of payment” -- what is known as a “quantum meruit” claim.

Baer is seeking payment for the “intensive three-day crash course on crime, criminal syndicates, and, specifically, mafia operations in New Jersey” that he gave David Chase back in October 1995 when Chase was working on the “Sopranos” pilot. His expert witness has valued those services at more than $95,000.

The last words Chase allegedly spoke to Baer before he left Jersey were: "I don't know how I could ever repay you."

Chase says he offered to pay Baer, but the former Hudson County municipal judge declined, saying the experience of working with Chase would help “jump-start” his own career as a screenwriter. Defense experts are expected to testify that consultants are usually not paid for help with pilots and writers rely on colleagues and other sources for free help.

The case, which Baer filed in May 2002, has gone through a convoluted history, with U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano twice throwing it out only to be reversed on the quantum meruit claim by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“Proving to be every bit as resilient as Tony Soprano, the fictional mob boss and central figure of The Sopranos, this action returns to the Court for a third time,” Pisano said after the second appellate reversal.

Baer originally alleged among his 10 claims that Chase stole creative ideas from him for “The Sopranos.” In 2004, the 3rd Circuit held that he had no claim for misappropriation because the ideas he allegedly submitted to Chase were not sufficiently novel to warrant protection. Baer v. Chase, 392 F.3d 609.

Pisano earlier this year rejected Baer's argument that he should still be allowed to recover in quasi-contract for his ideas because his sharing of those ideas, though not novel, conferred a benefit upon Chase and the ideas were at least novel to Chase.

“It is clear from Baer’s Complaint, the evidence in the record and the previous decisions in this case that, although he did perform some services for Chase, Baer did not assist in the creation or development of The Sopranos,” Pisano concluded in an April 27 opinion.

During those three days in Jersey, Baer helped arrange for Chase to meet with Tony Spirito, a waiter who had known mobsters growing up in Peterstown, N.J. He and a police detective also escorted the writer to the locations of various waste management companies and to a meat market that allegedly inspired the Satriale's Pork Store owned by Tony Soprano.

"David Chase didn't know Jack about organized crime. He didn't even know what the 'vig' was," Spirito told the Newark Star-Ledger.

But whatever Chase learned from his “crash course,” it's hard to believe the jury will assign a value to Baer's services that will make such a protracted litigation worthwhile. In court documents, Chase has called Baer "self-delusional."

For Star-Ledger coverage of the trial, click here.