Judge pauses ruling in lawsuit against Lionsgate, Perry

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brock T. Hammond agreed on Friday to delay signing a judgment favoring Lionsgate. The studio is a party in a sexual assault and battery lawsuit that also names filmmaker Tyler Perry.

The judge cited a local appellate court preference against entering judgments while a timely motion for reconsideration is pending. Plaintiff Mario Rodriguez’s request for reconsideration is set for a hearing on February 24. Lionsgate has already submitted a proposed judgment for Hammond to sign.

Rodriguez originally filed the lawsuit on December 26. The complaint was amended on April 21 to add a negligence claim after Perry and Lionsgate requested dismissal of a negligent retention count. A second revision occurred on July 8. These amended complaints supersede the original filing.

On October 22, Hammond issued a ruling dismissing Lionsgate as a defendant. The judge wrote that the court would not grant leave to amend because the plaintiff did not state what facts he could allege to remedy the complaint's defects. Rodriguez’s attorneys subsequently filed a motion for reconsideration.

Lionsgate submitted its proposed judgment on Tuesday, according to court papers filed by Rodriguez’s lawyers. The plaintiff’s legal team noted that the studio had been served with the motion for reconsideration before submitting the document. Rodriguez’s lawyers filed pleadings on Wednesday asking the judge to hold off on signing any judgment until after the February 24 hearing.

Rodriguez appeared in the film Boo! A Madea Halloween. He accuses Perry of leveraging his Hollywood power to make sexual advances. Attorneys for Perry and Lionsgate argued that Rodriguez, a California resident, sued the California-based studio to avoid federal court. They stated that Perry is a Georgia resident and that Rodriguez asserted a negligent retention claim to defeat diversity jurisdiction.

Diversity jurisdiction allows federal courts to hear civil cases between residents of different states when the amount in question exceeds $75,000. The Perry and Lionsgate attorneys claimed Rodriguez knew a similar case had been transferred to federal court in Georgia.