SANTA MONICA (CNS) - Jamie McCourt won a round in court in her legal battle against her family's former head of security, who alleges in a lawsuit that the onetime Los Angeles Dodgers CEO wrongfully cut him out of his share of millions they accumulated during a longtime business partnership.
Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Mark Epstein issued a lengthy ruling Wednesday in response to a motion by the 69-year-old former wife of ex- Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and other defendants in the suit filed last June 30 by plaintiff Jeff Fuller, seeking dismissal of various claims. Fuller seeks a 50% split of property that he maintains is owed him after McCourt allegedly breached their agreement in 2021.
Epstein ruled in December that Fuller could move forward with his allegations of breach of contract, that McCourt put her interests ahead of his and that he was allegedly the victim of both intentional infliction of emotional distress and malicious eviction. But in last week's decision, the judge tossed Fuller's claims against McCourt for intentional interference with contractual relationship, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, breach of quiet enjoyment, negligence, negligent entrustment and negligent hiring, training and supervision.
In a sworn declaration submitted in opposition to McCourt's motion to dismiss the claims, Fuller says he was involved in a 12-year love affair with McCourt in which she promised they were partners in business and personal affairs.
``It is my position that McCourt conspired and colluded with other defendants ... to fraudulently deprive me of my rights and steal from me,'' Fuller said. But in their court papers, McCourt's lawyers describe Fuller as a ``bonafide con artist who claims that he is entitled to half of the assets of his wealthy former companion.'' No partnership ever existed between Fuller and McCourt, according to McCourt's attorneys' court papers, which state that the plaintiff's claims to the contrary are ``a complete fabrication.''
The McCourts bought the Dodgers in 2004 for $400 million and Fuller was put in charge of their family security in 2006, the suit states. ``A trusted employee and loyal family man,'' Fuller had a highly respected reputation as a high-level security analyst, consultant and strategist and by April 2008, he and McCourt began dating, the suit states.
In 2009, after a bitter loss by the Dodgers in the playoffs, Frank McCourt fired his wife from her executive duties with the team for having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate employee and Fuller was stripped of his job for doing the same with a superior, the suit states. Jamie McCourt subsequently filed for divorce. As they cohabitated exclusively with one another, ``Jamie McCourt would recount to Fuller her version of the details of the events of (the divorce) proceedings in court,'' the suit states. McCourt eventually told Fuller, ``Look, if you dedicate your life to me, I will dedicate my life to you. You will never have to worry about money again,'' the suit alleges. Fuller relied on McCourt's alleged promises that should the partnership ever end, the couple would split everything equally, the suit states. During their time living together between Malibu and Napa, Fuller ``sacrificed his own personal dreams to stand by and support Jamie McCourt,'' according to the suit.
In 2012, Fuller and McCourt formed Good Shepard Motorsports LLC, a motorsports racing company that participated in professional off-road races, and the plaintiff invented a personality known as ``Robert Acer,'' the suit states. GSM began a humanitarian mission, the Robert Acer Project, to aid, educate, feed and support children of Mexico, according to the suit. McCourt and Fuller went to Rome to see their friend, actor Will Ferrell, during the filming of ``Zoolander 2,'' and the plaintiff traveled back and forth between the United States and Paris managing the couple's partnership interests after McCourt was appointed ambassador to France and Monaco by then- President Trump in 2017, the suit states.
But in February 2021, McCourt unexpectedly told Fuller through an intermediary that she was ending their business partnership and armed guards ordered him off the Napa property in March of that year, according to the suit. McCourt's ambassadorship to France and Monaco ended in 2021.