Two Entertainment One entities want a judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging the companies shortchanged Endemol Shine North America out of its share of profits for the Western television series “Hell on Wheels,” arguing that no wrongdoing occurred and that one defendant is not even a party to the case.
The Los Angeles Superior Court complaint alleges that Entertainment One Television USA LLC kept for itself tens of millions of dollars in production tax subsidies and shared none of it with Endemol.
“Plaintiff Endemol is best known for producing reality television, but in this lawsuit it tries its hand at a different genre: historical fiction,” according to court papers filed by Thursday with Judge William F. Fahey by attorneys for eOne USA and eOne Ltd. “But the historical reality is that eOne USA shared 100% of these tax credits with Endemol.”
The court papers include a table of numbers that defense attorneys maintain proves their point.
Meanwhile eOne Ltd. “is not a party to either the term sheet or the distribution agreement, and is not even mentioned in those or any other agreements between the parties,” according to the eOne lawyers’ court papers.
In a separate motion, eOne attorneys maintain eOne Ltd. is a Canadian company over which California courts have no jurisdiction because there are no “minimum contacts” needed to establish personal jurisdiction over the entity.
According to a sworn declaration by Emily Harris, eOne’s vice president of global business and legal affairs, the company does not maintain any offices in California, own property or assets in the state nor does it maintain any business records there.
A hearing on the two eOne motions is scheduled Aug. 22.
“Hell on Wheels” aired on the AMC network from 2011-16, dealt with the construction of the U.S. transcontinental railroad and was produced by eOne.
“Endemol also entrusted eOne with responsibility for distributing the series in certain territories and sharing the revenues it collected,” the suit filed May 10 states. “An inspection of eOne’s books reveals, however, that eOne took advantage of its role, kept for itself tens of millions of dollars in production tax subsidies and shortchanged Endemol in numerous ways.”