Florida Man Sues Games Workshop for 62M
A Florida man has filed a suit against Games Workshop for $62 million. Here’s the details of the case.
The Case Basics
The complaint was filed with the United Stated District Court – Southern District of Florida on May 31, 2017.
David Moore, a Florida Man, is suing Games Workshop. Alleging fraud, price fixing, tortious interference, violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Orgs. Arct (RICO), and Unfair Trade Practices under 18 & 15 USC, Moore aims to reclaim $62.5 million in damages, broken up as follows according to the official complaint document.
Here are some excerpts from the complaint:
Plaintiff Seeks Damages
Plaintiff’s Allegations
The complaint is a 6 page document altogether and outlines 5 causes of action: “Fraud, Restraint of Trade, Willful Pump and Dump Scheme, Conspiracy, and Breach of Contract.” The nature of the action stems from Moore’s allegation that GW maintains a “Monopoly on Sci-Fi/Fantasy Wargaming.”
Plaintiff supports the allegation with 40 examples that outline his case against GW, including a conspiracy to defraud businesses:
Which he asserted itself was being carried out by those without ethics and morals.
You can read the full text of the court complaint here. Accompanying it was a 6-page affidavit, filed in support of the complaint, both filed pro se by Moore.
Filed along with the affidavit was Exhibit A, a letter from Games Workshop in which they cite a violation of GW Advertising Policy, which seems to be one of the core tenets of Moore’s case against GW.
You can read both the Affidavit and Exhibit A here
Case Thoughts
BoLS has talked to a legal consultant who has the following thoughts on the case:
- Clearly somebody is very angry.
- The plaintiff is representing himself, pro se. He possesses an LLM, which is similar to a doctorate in law. It’s roughly equivalent to what you would have if you were going to teach law school, or specialize in a practice area, like Torts, or Environmental law, oil and gas, etc. The plaintiff may have been a lawyer at one point, but it is unclear.
- The court has sent him notifications for not following proper legal filing procedures.
- This is a federal case filed in Florida, where the plaintiff lives, but the named parties are from other states, such as South Carolina.
- The plaintiffs have claimed just about everything you can claim and named essentially all of GW’s executives. It will be difficult to get jurisdiction on them personally.
- At a high level, this is what is called a “bathtub case”. The kitchen sink wasn’t big enough so the plaintiff threw the bathtub at them.
- It reads as essentially a laundry list of complaints about how GW has done business over the last twenty years – distilled into a lawsuit. Some of this could have teeth, as any company running its own retail stores and adjusting stock levels in the way asserted is a grey area.
- On the other hand self-represented pro se cases almost invariably go nowhere.
- On the other, other hand Games Workshop hasn’t responded yet, which likely means a voluntary extension.
~We will continue coverage as the case moves forward. Have at it.
