LOS ANGELES (CNS) — A branding company has dropped its breach-of-contract lawsuit against Ayesha Curry, the food and lifestyle personality and wife of Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, but the two sides will continue facing off before a state Labor Commission officer.
Lawyers for Flutie Entertainment USA Inc. filed court papers with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Steven J. Kleifield on Wednesday requesting dismissal of their lawsuit, in which they alleged that over five years they helped Curry obtain a Food Network show and a hosting role on ABC's “Great American Baking Show” and also assisted her in the publication of a bestselling cookbook as well as the launching of several successful food-based businesses.
Curry's attorney, Michael Plonsker, filed the Labor Commission petition on Curry's behalf, stating in his court papers that the commission has the exclusive jurisdiction to hear the dispute.
“When Ms. Curry retained Flutie Entertainment for the specific purpose of finding and negotiating artistic engagements, (Flutie) recognized their golden goose and employed every manipulative and deceptive tactic in their arsenal to gain increasingly larger shares of Ms. Curry's earnings,” Plonsker wrote in the commission petition.
In June, Kleifield put the case on hold after lawyers on both sides agreed nothing should go forward in the civil case until 30 days after the final determination of the Labor Commission petition. Flutie Entertainment then filed its request for dismissal.
Flutie's suit, filed in April 2020, alleges that in the 11 months since ending the business relationship in 2019, Curry denied the company its share of proceeds from the businesses, deliberately slowed down new enterprises, took away a top employee and “essentially gutted and devalued Flutie Entertainment's interests.”
Flutie maintains Curry had only a modest following for her social media and food blog, that she was known more at the beginning for being the wife of a famous NBA player and that the company was “clearly and undeniably instrumental in helping her achieve success.”