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Florida Man Sues Games Workshop for 62M

3 Minute Read
Aug 7 2017
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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.

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Here are some excerpts from the complaint:

Plaintiff Seeks Damages

 

 

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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:

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Which he asserted itself was being carried out by those without ethics and morals.

 

 

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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.

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Author: J.R. Zambrano
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