The lawsuit between Oliver Luck and Vince McMahon is going to be a knock down, drag out fight. The latest jab has Luck filing a Motion to Compel the verified answers of Alpha Entertainment.
Alpha Entertainment, the previous owners of the XFL is part of the lawsuit. In serving its discovery responses, Luck sought verified responses to their interrogatory responses. A verified response states under penalty of perjury that the responses set forth are correct. Luck argues that the responses were not verified. “Requiring a party to sign interrogatory responses under oath serves the critical purpose of ensuring that the responding party attests to the truth of the responses,” states a case cited by Luck in his motion.
Specifically, Luck objects to the lack of verification to three interrogatory responses. The one glaring one pointed out by Luck is the request for Alpha to identify all employees who used Alpha or XFL-issued mobile phones for matters unrelated to XFL business from June 1, 2018 until April 13, 2020. In response, Alpha’s counsel indicated that they did not know the identity of all Alpha employees, if any…”who used an Alpha-issued mobile phone for personal matters or matters unrelated to XFL business.”
Luck infers that the response was not made in good faith since it was an attorney, and not a representative of Alpha that responded to the question. While attorneys do assist in responding to questions from opposing counsel, it is the responsibility of the attorney to obtain the information from the person that has knowledge of the information.
Alpha argues that since the company was in bankruptcy, it did not have someone that could verify the responses. Luck argues that this response is a ‘red-herring,’ noting that even in bankruptcy there is an agent of Alpha. In the alternative, the attorney responding to the request should sign the verification.
Motion to Compel – Plaintiff by MMA Payout
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The request highlighted here would help in determining the people that Luck’s side would track down in deposing to determine the validity of the company’s phone policy. The requirement to verify discovery responses seems like a mere formality but it’s compulsory that every response is verified to ensure that the other side is not lying. A lawyer will not signed a verified request since they are not the person technically responding and due to the fact it may find them subject to penalty if it is later determined that the response was wrong. Alpha will attempt to skirt this issue citing the fact that it was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MPO will keep you posted.
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