A judge said Wednesday he is inclined to allow a lawsuit to proceed against Courtney Love and others that was filed by her daughter’s ex-husband stemming from an alleged attack on the plaintiff in his home in 2016, but added that he wants to review whether the entertainer and an attorney should remain as defendants in the case.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Randolph Hammock issued a tentative ruling stating that he was inclined to strike only Isaiah Silva’s intentional infliction of emotional distress claim insofar as it dealt with derogatory comments the defendants allegedly made about him via social media. He agreed with defense attorneys that it was protected speech.
However, he said he believes the other allegations the defense sought to strike — negligence, false imprisonment/kidnapping, extortion and stalking — should remain. He said he saw no evidence that any of those claims were related to the defendants’ First Amendment rights.
“You both should know better, it’s not even close,” Hammock told defense attorneys Todd Eagan and Martin Singer at the outset of the hearing.
However, after hearing arguments from Eagan and Singer, the judge said he wanted to ponder further whether Love and attorney Marc Gans should remain in the case, noting that neither were present at the scene of an alleged attack on Silva.
According to the complaint filed last May 25, Love, celebrity manager Osama “Sam” Lutfi and actor Ross Butler conspired to kidnap and try to kill Silva, Love’s former son-in-law, to try and reclaim a guitar once owned by the singer/actress’ late husband, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.
The 1959 Martin D-18E guitar was used during Nirvana’s iconic “MTV Unplugged in New York” performance in 1993. Cobain committed suicide the next year.
Since Love’s daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, filed for divorce from Silva in 2016, the guitar has been the subject of public interest and a contested issue in the couple’s marital split.
The complaint alleges that in June 2016, Lutfi, Butler and another man, Yan Yukhtman, broke into Silva’s West Hollywood home and banged on his bedroom door, saying that they were members of the Los Angeles Police Department. Silva claims he was later dragged out of his home and taken away in a black Cadillac Escalade.
Silva’s attorney, Douglas Unger, alleges that Love told Lutfi and others to use threats in order to convince Silva to agree to a settlement agreement to return the guitar and concur with her other demands.
Eagan and Singer maintained the settlement considerations were protected speech, but the judge said that would only be applicable if they were conducted without the alleged threats to Silva by the defendants.
“I just don’t buy it, I just don’t accept it,” Hammock said.
The judge at one point turned to Unger and asked, based on the arguments by Singer and Eagan, why Love and Gans are defendants. Unger said Love was the alleged mastermind of the actions against his client and that Gans told Lutfi not to let Silva leave the home until the settlement paperwork was completed.
Love and Lutfi later had a falling-out and she obtained a temporary restraining order against him in December, alleging he was harassing her and her family through emails, texts and phone calls.
The judge said he wanted to think about whether Love and Gans — who represents Lutfi in matters other than the current lawsuit — should remain in the case. He said he may have a decision by Friday.