LOS ANGELES – A judge has granted a motion by “Judge Judy” Sheindlin and other parties to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a talent agency that alleges the television personality cheated the firm out of profits when she bought and sold the show’s library rights in a deal with CBS.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kristin S. Escalante heard arguments Wednesday before saying she wanted to take under submission the issues in the suit brought in August 2020 by Rebel Entertainment Partners. Later in the day, she ruled in favor of the defendants, which include Sheindlin, CBS and its Big Ticket Pictures Inc.
Rebel Entertainment lawyers argued the case should go before a jury.
“Simply put, (Rebel) is entitled to 5% of the $99 million Sheindlin received from her August 2017 sale of her library of “Judge Judy” show episodes … pursuant to (Rebel’s) rights set forth in the 2005 Rebel/Big Ticket Pictures amendment,” the talent agency’s lawyers argued in their court papers.
Sheindlin and her co-defendants now “advance the after-the-fact, self- serving argument that no sale actually occurred, and that (CBS) did not acquire anything it did not already own,” Rebel’s lawyers further argue in their court papers.
But in their court papers, defense attorneys maintained there was no breach of contract because the written agreements demonstrate that the library was never transferred.
“The contracts demonstrate that while a transfer was contracted to occur in the future, it did not in fact occur,” the defense lawyers further argued in their court papers.
