Zuffa v. Bellator/Pavia Litigation: Bellator Asserts Claim Against Julian Gregorio for Defamation & Some Theory of Misappropriation Based on Alleged Leak to Zuffa
Following up on my coverage of Zuffa’s lawsuit against Bellator and Pavia — — a post with earlier links is here and here is my most recent post on the Court’s denial of Bellator’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction — on March 17, 2011, Bellator filed its answer to Zuffa’s complaint and asserted a third-party claim, i.e. a claim against a non-party, against Julian Gregorio who is allegedly a citizen of the State of California and allegedly may have been a former employee of MMA Associates, of which Ken Pavia is the alleged “Principal.”
At the outset, in its third-party complaint Bellator describes why its CEO, Bjorn Rebney, “requested from Pavia certain documents used by the UFC in connection with fighters.”
Specifically, Bellator alleges as follows:
In the summer of 2010 Bjorn Rebney determined to review the sufficiency of documents used by Bellator. As part of that process he requested from Pavia certain documents used by the UFC in connection with fighters. At no time did Rebney request any document anticipated to contain trade secrets or information proprietary to Zuffa, LLC. Mr. Pavia requested confidentiality due to, as he put it, fear of retaliation by Zuffa for cooperating with Bellator. In any case, communications between the parties would be presumptively confidential. Zuffa has a reputation for ruthlessly attempting to block competitors in the MMA field.
(emphasis added).
Bellator next alleges that Pavia did send the documents but that it never used the documents:
Pavia did, on a confidential basis, send certain documents to Bellator. However, those documents were not confidential and contained no proprietary information belonging to Zuffa. The documents in question were sent on a confidential basis but were not confidential documents. The format of the documents in question was changed from a PDF format to a Word format, but no Bellator representative substantively reviewed those documents as of the time of filing of the Complaint to which this Third Party Complaint is directed. The documents supplied by MMA Associates were never utilized by Bellator in any way and in fact were not substantively reviewed by Bellator’s staff or by Mr. Rebney.
With respect to Mr. Gregorio, Bellator alleges (upon information and belief) that he was an employee of MMA Associates and that he allegedly “took privileged communications between the CEO of Bellator and the President of MMA Associates and, with the knowledge that he was not entitled to do so, transmitted same to representatives of Zuffa, LLC.”
Further, Bellator alleges upon information and belief that:
Gregorio informed representatives of Zuffa that Pavia and Bellator were conspiring to misappropriate Zuffa’s confidential information when this was untrue. This information was given either with knowing falsity or with reckless disregard of the truth. Gregorio informed representatives of Zuffa that Bellator misappropriated trade secrets of Zuffa. This information was false and was either known to be false by Gregorio or was given in reckless disregard of the truth.
Bellator asserts claims against Gregorio for defamation and some theory of alleged violation of Bellator’s right to privacy and confidentiality.
Quite frankly, I don’t understand the second claim — perhaps it is something specific to California or Nevada (or maybe Bellator is asserting a claim for misappropriation), but it is not really spelled out.
With respect to confidentiality, the apparent (to me at least) alleged basis for some kind of confidentiality or privilege is that “Bjorn Rebney, the CEO of Bellator, is an attorney-at-law[,] Ken Pavia, the principal of MMA Associates, is a law school graduate and, at the time of the matter complained of, was believed in good faith by Rebney to be an attorney-at-law[,] and MMA Agents has on its staff at least one attorney-at-law.”There is, of course, an attorney client privilege, but I don’t see how it attaches under these alleged facts. Certainly no explanation is provided.
Even so, I don’t understand why any communication between Rebney and Pavia would be privileged just because both went to law school.
While I know nothing about the third-party defendant, if he is in fact a resident of California (as alleged) my prediction is that we may see another jurisdictional motion.
Fight Lawyer
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Justin Klein is a partner of the law firm Satterlee Stephens Burke & Burke LLP in New York City where he concentrates his practice in commercial litigation and represents clients in the fight industry. He regularly addresses current legal issues that pertain to combat sports, including efforts to legalize MMA in New York, at his Fight Lawyer website. He is a licensed boxing manager with the New York State Athletic Commission as well as the founder and Chairman of the Board of the New York Mixed Martial Arts Initiative, a non-profit organization that gives inner city youth the opportunity to experience the emotional and physical benefits of martial arts training. Justin lives in New York City where he trains in jiu jitsu and boxing.
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LOL
So Rebney asked for the documents, Pavia sent them with the understanding that it would remain on the down low, yet Rebney expects us to believe that NO ONE at Bellator every reviewed the documents once they arrived?
Yeah,
Right
If the documents were so inconsequential that no one even bothered looking at them, how come the head of the damn company was willing to go all James Bond in order to procure them? Is Rebney in the habit of asking for things he does not want?
Bjorn is a snake. Their financial backer is being investigate by the FBI for fraud, Bellator is losing money, they had to do an additional 2nd round of capital raise which was unplanned, they are paying for their mtv2 time slot.
They are scumbags in the worst way.
I am no lawyer, so you may have to clarify this for me. Does attorney-client privilege apply to the violation as it takes place? As I understand it, attorney-client privilege applies to information applying to a case, not the crime if you are codefendants.
Nick, applying to a particular case, i.e. litigation, is generally classified as work product and subject to a separate privilege — the work product privilege. Attorney client privilege can be implicated even if there is no case so to speak, such as a client asking an attorney for legal advice, e.g. in connection with a potential transaction. Here, the whole idea that Rebney and Pavia were in an attorney-client relationship such that any privilege would apply is baffling to me.
Thanks for clarifying. Sounds like a STUPID defense, but at least I better understand attorney-client privilege.