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Kevin Hart Accused of Refusing to Sit and Be Grilled in $2 Million Battle With Ex-Business Partner
March 18, 2019 at 12:10 am
Kevin Hart‘s former business partner is accusing the comedian of trying to drag out their $2 million legal battle and refusing to give dates for him to be questioned under oath in the case.
According to court documents obtained by The Blast, iGo Marketing & Entertainment claims they have not been provided with proposed dates for the comedian’s deposition in the case.
The judge had recently ordered Hart to tell iGo when he was free to be deposed and to hand over certain key documents. Following the hearing, iGo says they were informed the comedian was switching out his lawyer in the case.
Since the new lawyer came on, iGo claims they have not received a single document, nor have they heard anything about Hart’s availability.
They accuse Hart of engaging in delay tactics and are pleading for the court to help with the issues.
As The Blast first reported, iGo Marketing & Entertainment sued Hart claiming they entered into a deal with him to negotiate marketing and celebrity tie-in deals on his behalf. iGo has worked with Jerry Seinfeld, Jamie Foxx, John Legend and many others.
They claim their deal with Hart called for them to get paid 15% on any deal they negotiated for Hart.
In the lawsuit, iGo claims they secured numerous deals for Hart over the years with the likes of Miller-Coors, Coke-Zero, Vitamin Water, Electronic Arts, two deals with Caesars Entertainment, the Cosmopolitan Hotel and a deal with Verizon Wireless.
They claim Hart always made good on the deal … that is, until it came to a deal with Rally Healthcare in 2015.
iGo claims they negotiated a three-year deal between Kevin Hart and Rally that called for the comedian to get paid partly in cash and part in stock options.
In 2015, Hart then terminated the deal with iGo but they claim that didn’t allow him to stop paying the commission on deals they locked down. They claim Hart did not pay them their 15% on the third year option of the deal or for the value of the stock option.
They are suing for breach of contract and are seeking no less than $1.8 million from the comedian.
Kevin Hart responded to the lawsuit, claiming he never had a written agreement with iGo. He also claimed since the third-year option to the Rally deal kicked in after they parted ways, he didn’t owe them 15% of that money.
He counter-sued iGo for allegedly using his name and likeness for marketing on their website without his permission.
The comedian is demanding the lawsuit against him be dismissed and he be awarded unspecified damages for the use of his image. He is also seeking an injunction against his ex-business partner from continuing to use his name and likeness to market themselves.
The case is ongoing.