Monday, January 12, 2015

The Empires Strike Back


The Mouse and Associates aren't taking the wage suppression lawsuits in a recumbent position.

Just over a month after the trio of class-action lawsuits against Disney, Sony, DreamWorks Animation and other animation studios were consolidated into a single complaint, some of the heavyweight defendants in the alleged anti-poaching and wage-fixing case have struck back – on several fronts.

The first line of attack is a dense filing in federal court late last week by the studios seeking to have the amended class action from digital artists David Wentworth, Robert Nitsch Jr. and Georgia Cano dismissed “in its entirety with prejudice” (read it here). The primary thrust of their argument is that the statute of limitations has expired on the trio’s claims. ...

It's not surprising that Our Fine Entertainment Conglomerates are responding to the lawsuits alleging wage suppression with Uzis blazing. Freezing forward movement on the case or ... better yet ... shutting the suits down would be a good thing.

So they're taking a multi-pronged approach: 1) The suits are untimely ("Hey, good try, but the statutes of limitations has kicked in!"). And 2) The wage disputes should have been arbitrated, per the plaintiffs Personal Service Contracts.

By and by, we'll see which way Judge Koh rules.

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