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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Television creator and puppeteer Sid Krofft filed court papers Monday against his brother, Marty Krofft, and related Krofft entities for allegedly being delinquent in paying nearly $500,000 owed the 93- year-old plaintiff as part of a buyout of Sid's business interests.
The lawsuit, which was submitted in Los Angeles Superior Court but had not yet been processed and filed as of Monday, also names Sid and Marty Krofft Productions and Sid and Marty Krofft Pictures Corp. among the other defendants. The allegations include breach of contract, negligence, financial elder abuse and unjust enrichment.
Sid Krofft seeks at least $470,000 in compensatory damages as well as punitive damages, as well as a declaration of the rights of the parties and a court order allowing him to inspect corporate records of all funds received since May 2017. A representative for Marty Krofft could not be immediately reached.
Sid and the 85-year-old Marty Krofft, both born in Montreal, made numerous children's television and variety show programs, mostly in the 1970s, including "H.R. Pufnstuf," "Land of the Lost" and "Sigmund and the Sea Monsters."
The Sid Krofft court papers state that over the years, Sid Krofft was frugal and Monday lives in the same home he moved into in 1974, but that his sibling "lived large" and that the plaintiff loaned Marty Krofft hundreds of thousands of dollars when requested by his sibling to do so.
Sid Krofft's generosity later put him in the "humiliating" position of having to ask his brother to pay for the plaintiff's living expenses, according to Sid Krofft's court papers.
Marty Krofft began showing "aggressive and irrational behavior" in the "seesaw nature" of their personal and financial relationship, so in May 2017 the two sides agreed that Marty Krofft and the Krofft companies would buy out the plaintiff's shares in the entities and leave a zero balance, the Sid Krofft court papers state.
The accord called for Sid Krofft to be provided a car and $10,000 a month for life beginning in July 2017, but the payments stopped in February 2019, the Sid Krofft court papers allege.
Since February 2019, Marty Krofft has "defrauded Sid into believing any number of facts about the Krofft entities' solvency" while promising to pay his sibling the money due him, according to Sid Krofft's court papers.