LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A lawsuit brought by a former member of the board of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, alleging his membership was wrongfully terminated, has been sharply pared down by a judge.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Wendy Chang heard arguments Thursday on the HFPA's motion to dismiss plaintiff Magnus Sundholm's amended lawsuit on grounds it is legally deficient and part of an effort to punish the organization for denying membership to Sundholm's longtime partner, Norwegian journalist Kjersti Flaa.
The judge temporarily took the case under submission and ruled later in the day. The judge said Sundholm can move forward only on his suit's wrongful discharge cause of action against HFPA, but not against the 14 board members also named as co-defendants.
The judge dismissed Sundholm's causes of action for breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing and for violation of the California Right of Fair Procedure. The judge found Sundhold had not provided new facts to support those claims after having been previously given the chance to do so during a June hearing on the original version of the suit.
Sundholm, a journalist for the Swedish daily Aftonbladet, alleges in his suit filed last Dec. 8 that HFPA's ending of his membership in October 2021 deprived him of benefits he received as a member.
The HFPA board accused Sundholm, a member since 2008, of "fraudulent, illegal conduct that was contrary to the interests of the HFPA," according to the complaint. But Sundholm maintains he erroneously misidentified himself on an IRS form submitted in connection to his filing a whistleblower complaint against the HFPA and that the organization used the mistake as an excuse to fire him for having brought the complaint.
Sundholm also ties his removal to a backlash for the actions of Flaa, who brought an antitrust suit against the organization in 2021 in which she alleged that within the HFPA there is a "culture of corruption" in which qualified candidates are barred from joining.
But in their court papers, HFPA lawyers maintained the amended lawsuit contained nothing new from a legal standpoint.
"In sum, the (amended complaint) once again acknowledges that the HFPA provided Mr. Sundholm with all the required process prior to terminating his membership," the HFPA lawyers stated in their court papers. "He simply does not like the HFPA's decision and, without any legal basis, asks this Court to substitute its judgment with that of the HFPA's Board."
Sundholm's revised version did, however, delete pages of attacks on HFPA members, the organization's attorneys stated in their court papers.
"Having largely achieved the goals of his original complaint to attempt to "publicly embarrass the HFPA and cause it to incur significant legal expenses to defend against his baseless claims, Mr. Sundholm now tellingly removed from his (amended complaint) several pages of irrelevant gossip and rumors regarding alleged misconduct by HFPA members," the HFPA lawyers stated in their court papers.