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TNA production company (and at least at one point, minority owner) Aroluxe LLC and Ronald Dean Harris (aka Ron Harris of the Bruise Brothers) were dismissed as defendants in the ongoing lawsuit former TNA production company, Audience of One Productions, LLC filed against [Elite subscribers, click here] TNA parent company Impact Ventures LLC and TNA Chief Financial Officer Dean Broadhead in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia on 2/6.
The dismissal came at the request of Audience of One following a hearing on 2/3 that saw Aroluxe's Jason Brown and Harris each speak regarding why they should not be defendants in the case.
In court filings late last year, Harris and Aroluxe's lawyers argued that under Virginia law, Audience of One had failed to produce evidence that there was a conspiracy to defraud the company and that since there was no evidence of a conspiracy, that the court should not "allow a plaintiff to establish jurisdiction over a non-resident defendant by simply pleading bare allegations of a business conspiracy. This is not the law."
At the time, they also argued that any dispute between the parties did not originate in the State of Virginia, which meant that having the case heard there is meaningless. Harris stated at the time that he was not a party to the agreement between TNA and Audience of One and is a resident of Tennessee. Aroluxe's Jason Brown also stated that his company was not headquartered in Virginia, did not do regular business in the State and does not make significant money based on their business in the State, therefore Virginia could not have jurisdiction in any potential lawsuit.
While Harris and Aroluxe had requested the lawsuit be dismissed, that request was dropped once Audience of One requested they be dropped as defendants. The court officially removed them without prejudice (which means that legal action could be opened against them again down the line, if Audience of One finds something over the course of the case that leads to them wishing to file new claims against them) and that each party would be responsible for their own legal costs.
With the dismissals, Impact Ventures and Broadhead remain the only defendants.
Audience of One's lawsuit alleges that TNA's Dean Broadhead and Impact Ventures worked to get them on board under the false pretense of using them full-time as TNA's production company, only to then fail to pay them in a timely fashion for work done, requiring the set up of an agreed upon payment plan. According to the lawsuit, TNA then allegedly stopped paying after the first initial payment installment was made.
Audience of One is seeking $223,000 plus interest and post-judgment costs for breach of contract and for the defendants violating Virginia code.
A Settlement Conference has been set for the morning of 4/5 in an attempt to settle the matter before going to trial.
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