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Snipes Fights Talent Team
Even though he's technically already lost, Wesley Snipes is still spoiling for a fight.
Attorneys for the Blade star have asked a California judge to set aside a $1.7 million judgment against him that was awarded to a Hollywood talent agency, claiming the actor wasn't aware of the legal action.
Snipes' legal team filed a petition requesting the move with the blessing of Los Angeles-based United Talent Agency.
The company's attorney, Bryan J. Freedman, said UTA is glad to see the 45-year-old thesp "engaged" in the case as the agency would rather settle the dispute in a trial—and for good reason.
UTA sued Snipes in July 2006, alleging he stiffed his four agents out of $2 million-plus in commissions for obtaining parts in the third Blade movie and three others—the blink-and-you-missed it crime drama Chaos and the direct-to-video flicks The Shooter and Middle Man.
According to court papers, Snipes, pocketed $13 million for Blade: Trinity and purportedly paid the agency $716,690, a little more than half the $1.3 million UTA should've earned under a 10 percent deal orally agreed to in November 2002. He also failed to pony up their cut for the other three films.
Unable to serve Snipes with notice of the suit in person, the agency won approval to publish a summons in two newspapers, Los Angeles' Daily Journal and The Record of Fort Lee, New Jersey, where the erstwhile Demolition Man keeps a home. When they did not receive a reply, plaintiffs' lawyers initiated legal proceedings for a default judgment, which was eventually granted.
Snipes, however, states in an Oct. 3 motion that he "had absolutely no idea that UTA had commenced formal legal action against me until after I heard about the judgment."
"It is my regular practice to promptly address legal issues when they arise," he noted, adding that he never intentionally meant to ignore the suit. The motion was first reported Thursday by a local Los Angeles wire service.
According to Snipes, his failure to respond was partly due to his travel schedule. He spent a large chunk of time last year commuting between the African country of Namibia, filming the action-thriller, Gallowwalker, and the apartment he owns in Geneva, Switzerland, instead of returning to his main residence in Florida, where he might have been alerted to the lawsuit.
The performer stated that the only thing he heard about UTA's complaint was in an Internet report, but he "took it for rumor and nothing more."
Snipes, meanwhile, is still on the hook in a $12 million-plus federal tax-dodging criminal case. Snipes has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which carry a maximum sentence of 16 years in prison and hefty fines.
The trial, which was supposed to begin last month in Florida, has been pushed back to early 2008. The move came after Snipes fired lawyer William R. Martin, citing a "lack of trust and confidence," due to Martin's focus on the Michael Vick dogfighting case, and replaced him with Robert G. Bernhoft who successfully defended Snipes from bogus paternity allegations two years ago.
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