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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - After taking the case under submission in mid- December, a judge dismissed a small part of ``Jackass'' film creator Bam Margera's lawsuit alleging he was wrongfully fired from the upcoming ``Jackass Forever'' movie and ruled the majority of the litigation can move forward.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert S. Draper issued his final ruling on Monday in a decision that largely followed his earlier tentative ruling. He tossed the 42-year-old Margera's two claims for injunctive relief, but not the unfair competition and copyright infringement causes of action that the defendants also sought to have dismissed under the state's anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) law, which is intended to prevent people from using courts, and potential threats of a lawsuit, to intimidate those who are exercising their First Amendment rights.
``Defendants cannot ignore the claims ... which have nothing to do with free speech and everything to do with (Margera's) claim that (he) has a right to be fairly credited and compensated for his work on and contribution to the film and the franchise, with the relief in this case being money damages,'' Draper wrote.
Margera maintains that Hollywood studios and producers fired him so they could steal the popular and lucrative movie franchise and not compensate him. Margera and his company, Bam Margera Inc., filed the lawsuit Aug. 9 against Paramount Pictures, MTV, Jeffrey Tremaine, Johnny Knoxville, Spike Jonze, Dickhouse Entertainment, Gorilla Flicks and others.
The complaint alleges ``inhumane, abusive and discriminatory treatment of plaintiff Margera'' occurred and states he was wrongfully fired from the ``Jackass'' franchise he created.
The suit's other allegations include retaliation, fraud, violations of the state Fair Employment and Housing and Unruh Civil Rights acts, breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Margera seeks millions of dollars in damages and wanted preliminary and permanent injunctions preventing the film's scheduled Feb. 4 release from going forward, but the judge said that the injunctive claims are not recognized as causes of action in California. But the judge rejected Margera's attorneys' arguments in support of injunctive relief, calling the request a ``quintessentially prohibited prior restraint of defendants' constitutional right of free speech. It is not even that this request lacks minimal merit. It lacks any merit at all.''
According to the suit, in March 2020, Paramount completed a contract with Margera for a fourth ``Jackass'' film and conditioned Margera's participation and compensation on his adherence to a wellness agreement that Jonze and Knoxville had coerced him into signing while he was in a rehabilitation facility in 2019.
Margera signed the agreement after the pair told him that if he refused, he would be cut from all future installments of the ``Jackass'' films, the suit alleges. The wellness agreement obligated Margera to complete multiple daily drug tests at any hour of the day or night, the suit says.
The defendants knew Margera took Adderall to treat his attention deficit disorder and that he had been on the medication for several years, but Paramount fired him without a chance to explain, according to the lawsuit. The suit also states Margera was the only ```Jackass'' star fired for taking medication that he was prescribed.