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Emerald City Comicon Volunteers Settlement For Half A Million Dollars

Published Wed, 28 Jun 2017 12:30:17 -0500

Last updated Wed, 28 Jun 2017 12:35:18 -0500

Last year, a class action lawsuit was filed with the King County Superior Court. It came from those who volunteer for the Emerald City Comicon held in Seattle each year, and was against those who owned the show before it was sold to ReedPOP in 2015. This week, it was settled to the tune of almost half a million dollars.

Launched by former volunteer Jerry Michael Brooks last year, and representing 250 people, the suit claimed that volunteers were not paid for their time and demanded double back wages, interest, costs and legal fees.

Of the $493,227.84 awarded, legal services will take up a quarter of that. The remaining approximately $375,000 will be divided by the volunteers depending on their hours spent working at ECCC. Those that have volunteered at the show, even those who didn't take part in the suit are being sought. The show was formed in 2003 by Jim Demonakos, but the case only covered the shows held during 2014 and 2015, before ReedPop acquired the show and added it to its lineup.

At that point, "volunteers" at the show began to be paid. And so weren't volunteers anymore. The name has still stuck, however.

As part of the settlement, the owners and managers of the show back then, Eitane Emerald and the Demonakos family members deny legal liability and wrongdoing.