Mo’Nique won a round in court when a judge denied a motion by CBS and other companies to limit the information her attorneys seek to prepare for trial on her lawsuit alleging she is owed royalties from the sitcom “The Parkers.”
On Wednesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Holly J. Fujie denied a defense motion for a protective order at this time saying it is premature. The judge heard arguments, briefly took the case under submission and ruled the same day.
Mo’Nique, 57, filed the suit in April 2023 through her loan-out company, Hicks Media Inc. The defendants are Big Ticket Productions Inc., Paramount Pictures Corp. and CBS Studios Inc.
The Oscar-winning actress and comedian alleges she is owed royalties from “The Parkers,” and that the defendants lowered the show’s profitability in order to retain millions of dollars they would otherwise have had to pay.
Attorneys for CBS and the other defendants contended that Mo’Nique was unreasonably looking for an overly broad production of records covering more than 20 years beyond what is allowed by the statute of limitations — a request so extensive it would require the review of up to 300 boxes of undigitized records. They asked for a protective order limiting the production of records from April 1, 2018 onward.
Mo’Nique’s attorneys maintained the proposed protective order would prevent them from obtaining discovery relevant to its claims as well as its defenses to a cross-complaint. In her ruling denying the protective order, the judge said it was too early to issue such a decision because it would be based on assumptions that CBS and the other defendants will prevail on other legal issues in the case, including the statute of limitations and the time limitations under which Mo’Nique can dispute royalties payments.
“The Parkers” was a spinoff of the sitcom “Moesha” and aired on the UPN network from 1999 to 2004
Trial of the case is scheduled Aug, 3, 2026.