Fox ordered to pay $179m to leads, executive producer, author of Bones

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A private arbitrator ruled this month that Fox must pay the extraordinary sum of $178.7 million to former producers and stars of the procedural crime television series “Bones” in a dispute over profit participation.

The award spotlights a longstanding gripe among even well-compensated Hollywood players over the value of their work, especially as deep-pocketed newcomers like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and Apple come courting. Studios have often been criticized for what some consider questionable accounting practices that cut into back-end payouts.

The ruling spilled into public view on Wednesday after the plaintiffs in the case filed a petition to confirm the arbitration award in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The arbitrator, Peter D. Lichtman, said that Fox pocketed tens of millions of dollars that should have gone to the “Bones” team. He ordered Fox to pay the plaintiffs $50 million in damages and an additional $128 million in punitive damages. Fox is contesting the $128 million ruling.

In his 66-page ruling, the arbitrator accused several Fox senior executives — including the 21st Century Fox president Peter Rice and the Fox Television Group co-chief executive Dana Walden — of perjuring themselves. Mr. Lichtman said that those executives “appear to have given false testimony in an attempt to conceal their wrongful acts” and accused them of a “pattern of deceit.”

“The arbitrator is convinced that perjury was committed by the Fox witnesses,” Mr. Lichtman wrote.

Arbitration hearings are meant to be private and rarely come to light. Fox executives, however, were stunned by the ruling, which they saw as heavily one-sided, according to two people with direct knowledge of their thinking. The opinion left the company little leverage to negotiate a settlement, and the executives decided to contest the damages, the people said. That would also require public scrutiny before a judge.

In a statement, 21st Century Fox said, “The ruling by this private arbitrator is categorically wrong on the merits and exceeded his arbitration powers. Fox will not allow this flagrant injustice, riddled with errors and gratuitous character attacks, to stand and will vigorously challenge the ruling in a court of law.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/27/business/media/bones-fox-arbitration-award.html

Tough shit you greedy fucks.

[27X]

Considering the show was cancelled over this, get rekt kind sir.

[Somepotato]

and this is the problem with arbitration. It's solely meant to screw over the employee and is often bribed by the employer, and there's nothing the employee can do about the outcome. But in the one in a trillion chance that the outcome is positive on the side of the employee, the employer has the capabilit to contest and challenge it in court when it doesn't get it's way.