Netflix Inc., Conde Nast Entertainment LLC and a producer of the documentary series “Last Chance U” have been granted nearly $70,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs from six former community college football players who sued for defamation and false light invasion of privacy, but whose portrayal was found to be protected by free speech.
The plaintiffs in the case are former East Mississippi Community College players John Franklin III, Ronald Ollie, Cary Sidney Reavis II, Deandre Johnson, Tim Bonner and Isaiah Wright. In May, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lynne M. Hobbs granted an anti-SLAPP motion filed by the two companies and documentary filmmaker Greg Whiteley, removing them as defendants in the case, but not dismissing the lawsuit entirely.
On Wednesday, Judge Richard S. Kemalyan, who is now presiding over the case, granted the reduced amount of $68,140. The three defendants’ attorneys had filed court papers stating that having prevailed in the motion, their clients were collectively entitled to $91,735 in attorneys’ fees and about $1,355 in costs.
The amount sought was less than the actual fees incurred by the defendants given their attorneys’ actual and reasonable hourly rates, according to the defense lawyers’ court papers, which further stated that their research for their motion included interviewing Whiteley to document the genesis and his vision for the series and his communications with the plaintiffs over the years.
The defense attorneys also did internet searches to develop their arguments about public interest in the show, the defense attorneys further stated in their court papers.
In a separate motion, Kemlayan granted a motion by the National Junior College Athletic Association, a North Carolina nonprofit and the final defendant in the case, to quash the service of summons based on jurisdictional grounds.
“Plaintiffs have identified NJCAA’s connection with a school in Redlands, which none of plaintiffs attended and which has no evident relation to the claims asserted in plaintiff’s complaint,” the judge wrote. “The fact that hypothetical California plaintiffs might have suffered injuries similar to the type alleged by plaintiffs is insufficient to establish that the contacts relate to plaintiffs’ claims.”
The former players settled the part of the case against East Mississippi Community College in November.
In granting the anti-SLAPP motion, Hobbs said Netlix and the other defendants had “demonstrated that the gravamen of plaintiffs’ allegations against them arises from protected activity,” namely, free speech.
“Last Chance U” ran for five years, ending in 2020, and the plaintiffs alleged in the lawsuit filed Feb. 10 that they were portrayed in a “false, offensive and damaging” manner. The plaintiffs further contended that Netflix convinced them to enter agreements without leveling with them about how they would be portrayed.
Plaintiff Franklin was conveyed as a “spoiled, cocky, arrogant, brat” in order to “dramatize their show and increase viewer ratings,” according to the suit, which further alleged that the players were not paid for the use of their likenesses despite the “significant financial benefit” earned by Netflix.