Two men suing an auctioneer over the sale of the original model of the Starship Enterprise to the son of the late “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry have filed new court papers seeking the dismissal of the son’s claim to the replica.
In their Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit, Dustin Riach and Jason Rivas say they discovered the model and hired Heritage to sell it, but the auction house breached its duties by selling it to Roddenberry’s son, Gene “Rod” Roddenberry Jr,. at a discount to encourage future business for Heritage.
The plaintiffs maintain the model was sold in 2023 for $300,000 despite being worth $800,000. On Monday, they filed court papers with Judge Daniel Murphy in advance of an Oct. 10 hearing asking him to grant their motion for summary judgment against Rod Roddenberry’s one claim of quiet title, which would effectively dismiss his entire complaint in intervention. Rod Roddenberry filed the legal action on Feb. 25 and he seeks a judgment that he is the sole owner of the model through bequeathments,
But in his court papers, an attorney for Riach and Rivas states the quiet title cause of action is in violation of the statute of limitations and that his clients are immune to any such claim because they bought the model without notice of any competing claim.
After Riach and Rivas found the model in October 2023, Rod Roddenberry admitted on the social media that it had been voluntarily loaned and had turned up missing, according to the plaintiffs’ attorney’s court papers, which further state that if Gene Roddenberry had sought quiet title regarding the model, his rights would have expired in 1982.
Gene Roddenberry died in October 1991 at age 70.