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By CARLOS PEDRAZA | SEPTEMBER 8, 2019 | 4 MIN. READ
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The situation: Star Trek Continues star and anime voice actor Vic Mignogna loses an important round in his defamation lawsuit as many of his claims were dismissed by a Texas judge in response to a motion by the defense. Mignogna's former employer, Funimation, and former colleagues were being sued for defaming him about his alleged sexual misconduct. And Mignogna's lawyer, Ty Beard, didn't do the actor any favors either, bumbling his way through Friday's hearing.
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1. Hero Prop’s Latest Legal Maneuver Could Short-Circuit Propworx Lawsuit
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Purchasing Peters' counterclaims. In a bold move to resolve her lawsuit against Alec Peters, Hero Prop owner Tiana Armstrong's latest legal maneuver purports to have bought Peters' claims in the suit out from under him, thanks to a prior judgment against him she bought months ago.
- Choses in action. This legal term refers to intangible property that a creditor can purchase. In this case, the intangible property Armstrong bought was Peters' and his company Propworx's counterclaims against her in a Nevada lawsuit involving the sale of the Enterprise-E model that appeared in Star Trek: First Contact. The suit also alleges Peters defamed Armstrong.
- Basis for the sale. Armstrong and her attorney, Michael Rawlins, are using a $24,000 judgment Peters already owes her as the basis for auctioning off any property he has in Nevada — including his pending counterclaims against Hero Prop.
- Dismissed defamation. That judgment is based on a 2010 defamation case in which Peters' lawsuit against Jason DeBord was thrown out because a judge determined Peters was only using the lawsuit and its legal costs to shut up DeBord's coverage of Peters' shenanigans in the prop sales world. Go deeper »
- Auctioned rights. In an auction last Wednesday on the courthouse steps in Las Vegas, Armstrong offered the DeBord judgment for sale, along with the rights to pursue Peters' property to satisfy the judgment. Two other people bid up to $1,500 before Armstrong won with a $7,000 bid.
Why buy a judgment she already owns? Because Armstrong wants an explicit legal claim on Peters' counterclaims against her lawsuit as intangible property she has just bought. In a motion filed Friday in Clark County District Court, attorney Rawlins therefore wants to:
- Substitute Hero Prop and Armstrong for Peters and Propworx as the parties with counterclaims to her own lawsuit.
- Dismiss the case. If the judge agrees to the substitution, Hero Prop withdraws what was formerly Peters'/Properworx's counterclaims against the company and Armstrong, with prejudice, leaving alive only Armstrong's defamation claims against Peters.
Can they really do this? Apparently, according to Nevada statutes. Rawlins' motion cites prior Nevada Supreme Court decisions as the basis for such a move; it's happened before.
- ‘Crafty’ and ‘savage’ move. AxaMonitor's legal consultant is impressed by the maneuver:
“This is really too funny, and far more crafty than I would ever think to be. It’s just savage.”
How did it get past Peters? According to court records, Peters (who often styles himself as a "lawyer by training") and his Nevada attorney, Kory Kaplan, were duly notified about the auction — and don't appear to understand what's at stake.
- Missing the auction. Our legal consultant says he's never seen such a move before, and that Peters could have tried to buy them at the auction. Neither he nor his attorney showed up, despite being notified.
- No more counterclaims? "She is effectively taking all of his counter claims away from him unless he is willing to put up a whole lot more money to buy them back," our legal consultant says.
- Status meeting. Armstrong attorney Rawlins attended and Kaplan appeared for Peters at a meeting Friday with the judge to report on the status of the case.
What happens next? A hearing on Hero Prop's motion is set for October 24.
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2. Read the Documents Behind Hero Prop’s Maneuver
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ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS AxaMonitor has obtained a copy of Hero Prop's motion to dismiss (4.8 MB PDF), and the single-page July 25 public notice of the auction of Peters' counterclaims in their lawsuit.
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Find Us on Super Geeks
Join AxaMonitor editor Carlos Pedraza every week on the Super Geeks live podcast in the Real Super Geeks Facebook group every Friday at 10 p.m. PDT/1 a.m. EDT. Super Geeks is hosted by George Silsby.
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