The legal troubles of Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford continue this week. On Tuesday, ex-Gearbox lawyer Wade Callender filed a motion in Dallas County district court for contempt and requested sanctions against Gearbox alleging "discovery abuse" and failure to produce certain court ordered documents.
"Callender believes he can prove that GBX (Gearbox), and their lawyers, continue to violate this Court’s order and hide documents," the filing reads. "Enough is enough and GBX needs to be held in contempt and sanctioned for this behavior."
This legal battle between Pitchford and Callender, a lawyer at Gearbox from 2011-2018, extend all the way back to the end of last year. On December 11 2018, Callender filed a discrimination claim against Pitchford alleging religious harassment. 10 days later he filed a lawsuit against Pitchford and Gearbox including on the basis of the initial religious harassment claim. Additionally, Callender alleged that Pitchford made a "secret" deal to earn $12 million as an advance upon royalties and that Pitchford had left a USB drive at a Texas restaurant that contained sensitive corporate information and "underage pornography." Ten days later, Gearbox sued Callender for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty.
On December 22, Pitchford went on an episode of the Piff Pod podcast and chatted with comedian and magician John van der Put about magic and a certain USB flash drive. Pitchford mentioned this USB drive contained "barely legal pornography," a bit that gained more attention following the lawsuit and allegations going public.
Months of back and forth only ratcheted up the tension between the two parties. Over the past year, Pitchford has got into hot water with the public with his animal cruelty video and statements lying about microtransactions in Borderlands 3.
On Monday, Gearbox made a request for relief in court which the Dallas County Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied. The company claimed the "trial court abused its discretion by overruling numerous objections to requests for production of documents and compelling production of certain documents." The appellate court responded with a statement that Gearbox "have not shown they are entitled to the relief requested."
The Borderlands 3 developer has had a rough go of it thanks to this very public legal and personal trouble surrounding their CEO and figurehead. The game is finished and out soon, so hopefully the hard work of the development team at Gearbox does not go overlooked due to these developments.
Source: THR