Rosenberg
Alan Rosenberg's struck out again in court in his attempt to overturn recent moves by SAG's national board to fire Doug Allen and abolish SAG's negotiating committee.
A three-judge appeals court panel on Friday denied the SAG prexy's request for an expedited ruling to overturn last week's ruling by a state court judge James Chalfant turning down Rosenberg's request for a temporary restraining order. Judges Norman Epstein, Thomas Willhite and Nora Manella issued the one-sentence denial.
"The petition for writ of mandate filed February 11, 2009, has been read and considered and is denied for failure to demonstrate entitlement to extraordinary relief," the ruling read.
Both the Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers had already brushed off the threat from Rosenberg's suit, in the wake of Chalfant's ruling. The two sides plan to resume feature-primetime contract talks on Tuesday with a new SAG task force in place and John McGuire replacing Allen as SAG's chief negotiator.
Rosenberg's attorneys were not immediately available for comment on Friday. But the appeals court ruling leaves Rosenberg and his three fellow plaintiffs -- board members Anne-Marie Johnson, Diane Ladd and Kent McCord -- with having to wait much longer for a court to find in their favor, either through the appeals process or by having the lawsuit go to trial.
SAG had been set to hold talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers on Feb. 3 and 4 for the first time since November, but those talks were delayed after Rosenberg launched his legal fight.
Chalfant ruled on Feb. 5 against Rosenberg's request for a court order. Rosenberg had filed the lawsuit on Feb. 3 against SAG and the 41 board members who used a "written assent" maneuver on Jan. 26 to pass a resolution ousting Allen and the negotiating committee.
SAG's "bylaws permit the board to do exactly what it did," said Chalfant, who also said that he could not grant the order because Rosenberg's suit is unlikely to succeed on its merits.
SAG's board, which switched to a moderate majority last fall, fired Allen and ousted the negotiating committee for a second time last Sunday in order to make Rosenberg's lawsuit moot. Rosenberg led a 28-hour filibuster at the last SAG board meeting on Jan. 12-13 to block a vote on the resolution, prompting the moderates to take the "written assent" route.
Rosenberg has alleged that the moderate majority had violated state corporate law and guild bylaws, particularly SAG's requirement that individual committee members may be replaced only by a two-thirds vote of the board. But Chalfant found the SAG board needed only a simple majority to eliminate the negotiating committee, which was dominated by Rosenberg supporters.
Rosenberg's attorneys also said the creation of a task force was a "Back door" scheme to get around the two-third requirement. But SAG's outside attorney, Daniel Alberstone, pointed out at the Feb. 5 hearing that the task force has a different role than the negotiating committee. Alberstone noted that the negotiating committee was assigned to seek a strike authorization from members if negotiations failed; the task force is simply assigned to make a recommendation to the national board.
Chalfant also spurned Rosenberg's attempt to overturn the board's move to declare that only interim national exec David White and senior adviser John McGuire can speak on behalf of SAG. The jurist disagreed that the new rule is a "gag order," since it doesn't prevent Rosenberg from speaking publicly.
Besides an injunction, the suit seeks legal fees but no monetary damages.
Contact Dave McNary at
dave.mcnary@variety.com