A virtual hearing set this morning in LA Superior Court could result in a black eye for the Walt Disney Company and its five-year battle against what is now a sprawling pay equity class action suit.
Less than a year before an estimated trial start, Monday’s recently began session finds lawyers for Disney Studios staffers LaRonda Rasmussen and Karen Moore facing off with Mouse House attorneys from Paul Hastings LLP over accusations that once again the Bob Iger-led company has been refusing to hand over requested documents.
“Disney has inappropriately withheld or redacted hundreds of documents on the basis of attorney-client privilege and work product protection,” states plaintiffs’ lead lawyer Lori Andrus in a May 16 motion to compel filing. “Disney’s formulaic and vague descriptions of why documents were withheld are not sufficient to justify withholding the documents, and the Court should issue an order requiring Disney to produce the documents and redacted information,” the Bay Area-based attorney added in the somewhat redacted document.
Back in December, to a “disappointed” Disney’s chagrin, LASC Judge Elihu M. Berle ruled that Rasmussen and Moore’s lawsuit claiming gender-based pay disparity can become a class-action suit. A formal class notice was issued on April 25 this year and sent out to probable plaintiffs via snail mail and email.
Specifically, having successfully fought off various moves by Disney to see the case tossed out, the plaintiffs and their lead lawyer Lori Andrus allege in their initial April 2019 filing that the company knowingly violated the Fair Employment & Housing Act and California’s Equal Pay Act by paying female employees less than male employees.
Seeking at least $150 million in lost wages, the suit could balloon in damages up to and beyond $300 million. It means the action could prove the biggest ever certified under California law. However, focusing on the time period of 2015 to today, the class action does not include women employed at Hulu, ESPN, Pixar and what was once Fox assets like FX or National Geographic.
Perhaps equally important as any hearing today, June 24 is also the last chance for the estimated more than 12,000 plaintiffs to opt out of the case.
Centering on the hearing at hand today, having been down this document dispute road to some extent a few years ago in this case, Disney are accusing the plaintiffs of conducting a fishing expedition where they determine the bait, the boat, and what actually constitutes fish.
deadline.com