LOS ANGELES — The Buss Family’s fight over their 17.8% stake in the Lakers, and whether Jeanie Buss will be able to halt a sale to the Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner-led ownership group that agreed to purchase the team two weeks ago, is officially headed to the courts.
Jeanie Buss petitioned the Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, continuing her attempt to block her five siblings from selling their family’s minority stake in the Lakers, according to the petition processed Wednesday and obtained by the Southern California News Group.
“Jeanie never agreed to any sale, was never consulted, and was never even informed,” the 97-page petition states.
The others contend that they need only four of the six siblings and two of the three co-trustees to vote to sell the remaining shares, held by a family trust. SCNG has reached out to the legal representation of Buss’ siblings – Joey, Jesse, Jim, Johnny and Janie Buss – for comment. None had replied as of Wednesday evening. A court hearing is set for Nov. 5.
The petition requests five “Cause of Actions.” The first of which requests that a judge orders her five siblings to comply with the 2017 court order regarding the Buss family trust.
“If consummated, the sale would strip Jeanie of the Controlling Owner position that the JoAnn 2006 ESBT and the 2017 Order mandate be preserved for Jeanie’s lifetime,” the petition states, referring to the family’s trust at the heart of the court filing.
Secondly, that the resolution – stating that the siblings “agree to exercise the power to sell the Trust’s Shares of the Company pursuant to the terms of the Proposed Go-Along Sale.” – be voided.
“Yet Janie and Joey have now brazenly, knowingly and intentionally violated the 2017 Order and the express provisions of the Jo Ann 2006 ESBT by secretly signing a purported resolution (the “Purported Resolution”) – void on its face – to sell a portion of the Jo Ann 2006 ESBT’s 17.82% stake in the Lakers,” the court filing states, referring to the 2006 family trust.
Jeanie Buss has been the governor of the franchise and will continue to be – even following Mark Walter purchasing the team last year – as long as she has at least a 15% stake in the Lakers. When Walter bought the Lakers, Jeanie Buss was expected to remain as governor for the next five years despite no longer owning the majority stake in the franchise. The Athletic reported Wednesday that she would be expected to remain governor under Iger and Kushner as long as she has 15%.
Dr. Jerry Buss – the siblings’ father who bought the Lakers in 1979 and owned the franchise until his passing in 2013 – chose Jeanie Buss to run the team before his death. Jeanie Buss’ status as “controlling owner” of the franchise, and how it’s described in the Buss family trust, is the crux of her case to retain the 17.8% stake.
“Most important, the Resolution offends the testamentary intent and very legacy that Dr. Buss and Jo Ann entrusted the Buss siblings to protect,” Streisand argues. “Indeed, other owners of stakes in the Lakers have expressed their support for Jeanie remaining Controlling Owner, and have voiced their intent to hold, not sell, their stakes in the Lakers.”
Third, Jeanie Buss requests that the courts surcharge her siblings, Joey and Janie Buss, and be held liable for “loss and damage.” She also requests in the petition that Joey and Janie Buss – whom Jeanie refers to as “devious” – be removed from the trust altogether after showing impartiality toward the trust.
“Given the breadth and severity of Joey and Janie’s breaches – their defiance of the 2017 Order, their execution of the void Purported Resolution, their exclusion of Jeanie from fiduciary decision-making, and their coordinated campaign of public misinformation – Jeanie respectfully requests that the Court remove Joey and Janie as cotrustees,” the court filing states.
Streisand claims on behalf of Jeanie that “Joey and Janie participated in a false report that the “family” had voted to sell the shares, and that Jeanie was “out” as Controlling Owner.” Streisand goes on to argue that “no such emergency meeting was ever called or occurred” with Lakers vice president of finance Joe McCormack and that her siblings had “orchestrated” a report in the media saying as such.
Fourth, Jeanie Buss requests that a judge holds Joey and Janie Buss in contempt of court on the basis of failing to comply with the 2017 court order. And lastly, the fifth action alleges that “James (Jim), Johnny and Jesse, with full knowledge and forethought, have aided and abetted Janie and Joey in violating the 2017 Order and the terms of the Jo Ann 2006 ESBT.”
In the court filing, Streisand argues that Jeanie Buss would not sell due to the “continuously skyrocketing value” of the Lakers and that minority shareholders Patrick Soon-Shiong and Ed Roski Jr. “have made the determination, as has Jeanie, that the value of Lakers stock will continue to increase over the value of the stock in the current proposed offer for the purchase … and, for that reason, they have no intent to sell their Lakers stock at this time.”
According to a declaration from Streisand made alongside the petition on Wednesday – which was also obtained by SCNG – he met for the first time on Aug. 19 on a video call with the legal representation for Joey and Jesse (Streisand claims that Jason Kahout was the only lawyer who responded to a query to meet, and that counsel for Johnny, Jim and Janie did not respond to requests to meet).
“I asked if anyone had a reaction to what I had said,” the declaration states. “The only person to speak among the other participants in the meeting was Mr. Kalyvas, who is a litigator. Mr. (Jim) Kalyvas said that the only question that they had is why won’t Jeanie agree to do what her siblings want.”
Jim Kalyvas practices with Kahout. Streisand claims he went on to explain what he told the counsel for Jesse and Joey Buss.
“I explained that Jeanie’s objective, first and foremost, is to carry out her parents’ intentions, Dr. Buss’s legacy, and to continue the enormous success she has had in creating value to the fans and to the Buss family,” Streisand writes.
“I noted that some of their clients said, when Mark Walter bought stock from the other Buss trusts at a $10,000,000,000 valuation, “no one will ever pay that kind of money again”, but that less than a year later, a group led by Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner have reportedly offered to buy Walter’s stock at a valuation of $12,500,000,000 and Jeanie is firmly of the view that values will continue to increase and that there will be enormous demand for the Jo Ann 2006 ESBT stake.”
The meeting ended, Streisand writes, after “Mr. Kalyvas or anyone else in the meeting responded in substance.”
“While I had made clear that my purpose was not to argue the law but to seek dialogue, since there was no dialogue, it is also noteworthy that at no time during the meeting did anyone offer an explanation of why they thought they had the right to do what they were doing or why I was mistaken in my views, including with respect to the 2017 Order,” the declaration states. “Instead, Jeanie was provided with a copy of a purported Resolution of Trustees that makes no reference to the 2017 Order.”
Iger and Kushner agreed to buy the Lakers from Walter at a record $12.5 billion valuation on Aug. 12. Any deal is subject to approval from the NBA’s board of governors, which is scheduled to meet next month in New York.
Staff writer Sean Emery contributed reporting to this article.