Michael Nesmith, who first earned fame and fortune as a member of the 1960's rock group The Monkees, had a new fortune ordered his way by a Federal jury in Los Angeles.
The nine-member jury late on Monday unanimously found the Public Broadcasting Service guilty of breach of contract and fraud in dealing with Mr. Nesmith in his more recent career as a video producer. It awarded him and his company nearly $47 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
PBS declined to comment on the verdict beyond a statement yesterday saying it intended to contest it.
The verdict was unusual because Mr. Nesmith was a defendant in the case, in which PBS sought to recover past royalties due from his company; the jury rejected the PBS claim while finding in favor of Mr. Nesmith's counterclaim.
During the trial, Mr. Nesmith's lawyers presented evidence indicating that PBS had misrepresented and concealed business arrangements from Mr. Nesmith and his company, Pacific Arts Inc., helping drive him out of business.
''They decimated my business; they decimated my catalogue, by luring me into this kind of complacency by lying to me,'' Mr. Nesmith said yesterday. ''I closed the business down in the shambles that it was, swept everything clean, moved to Santa Fe and wrote a novel. Then, PBS sued me.''
The relationship began in 1990, when Mr. Nesmith licensed the PBS logo and name to start a PBS Home Video line; PBS was to receive 6 percent of the sales revenue.
Mr. Nesmith had spent much of the 1980's buying the home-video rights to what he called ''documentaries and high-end programming'' at a time when the business consisted mostly of theatrical movies and pornography. Among the programs whose rights he bought were ''The Civil War'' from Ken Burns, the ''Nature'' series from WNET in New York and ''Masterpiece Theater'' from WGBH in Boston.
According to his lawyer, Henry Gradstein of Gradstein, Luskin & Van Dalsem in Los Angeles, Mr. Nesmith spent too much on rights and licensing fees and the video line's design, packaging and marketing. He failed to leave enough money to operate the business properly.
In early 1992, Mr. Gradstein said, Mr. Nesmith fell behind on royalty payments and asked PBS to renegotiate for a longer-term license, to give him time to get the business into the black. PBS, Mr. Gradstein said, agreed to do so and to find an investor to help raise extra capital, but never followed through.
By the end of 1992, Mr. Nesmith said, he told PBS he had to sell his library, which he estimated was worth $10 million to $15 million, to pay his debts and close his company without losing too much money.
Mr. Gradstein said PBS ''begged him not to,'' telling Mr. Nesmith it would mean ''the death knell'' of the PBS line, because the titles would be scattered to new owners, and again promised to find financial help.
Instead, Mr. Gradstein said, PBS solicited other distributors to take over the line, and also asked the video companies to terminate their contracts with Pacific Arts, all on the same day -- Oct. 11, 1993. Most did.
PBS then acquired the rights and set up a new home-distribution business with Turner Home Entertainment, a unit of Time Warner Inc. Mr. Gradstein said that the business is now worth $27 million a year to PBS.
The case went to trial Jan. 4. The jury found PBS guilty of breach of good faith, intentional misrepresentation, intentional concealment, negligent misrepresentation, and intentional interference in contractual relations. It awarded $14,625,000 to Pacific Arts for loss of the library, $29,250,000 in punitive damages, and $3 million in compensatory and punitive damages to Mr. Nesmith.
Photo: A jury ruled PBS defrauded Michael Nesmith, shown in a 1996 portrait with the other members of The Monkees, and his video business. From left are Mr. Nesmith, Davey Jones, Peter Tork and Mickey Dolenz. (Associated Press)