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Now Harold Peerenboom Sues Marvel's Ike Perlmutter for Suing Harold Peerenboom

There's yet another turn of events in the ongoing legal battle between Marvel chairman Ike Perlmutter and Canadian billionaire Harold Peerenboom.

There's yet another turn of events in the ongoing legal battle between Marvel chairman Ike Perlmutter and Canadian billionaire Harold Peerenboom over the control of their local tennis court, an anonymous smear campaign in their neighbourhood, allegations of false flag activity, DNA retrieval, and Marvel employees getting involved in it all.

Have you caught up? Good. Well, Eriq Gardner of the Hollywood Reporter, who has written a number of stories about the case, is now named in this new case — though he doesn't mention this in his report. Noting that THR is not a party to the litigation and citing the confidential nature of reporting methods, Gardner declined to address the specifics of the allegations relating to him for Bleeding Cool, simply stating that his coverage of the story demonstrated his diligence in the matter.

The prior lawsuit going to trial in the fall will call Marvel branding executive Chris Fondacaro, Marvel chief counsel John Turitzin, and Marvel chairman Perlmutter to the stand. As Gardner notes, Perlmutter will be making his first public speaking appearance anyone can remember.

And the latest twist on the latest twist is that Peerenboom now alleges that the Perlmutters and their attorneys knowingly made false and defamatory statements in their filing of the prior suit, and then publicised that suit before it was publicly filed with the court, with the intent of causing Peerenboom reputational harm.

That's right, they are being sued for having sued. Sort of.

Peerenboom claims that:

Before publicly filing this document in court, the Black Firm Defendants sent it to a reporter, Eriq Gardner, with The Hollywood Reporter (the "THR"). THR published an article re-publishing defendants' false statements that Peerenboom and his counsel were engaged in a criminal conspiracy to extort money from the Perlmutters — which article was published even before the May 2017 Confession was publicly available on the court docket.

And then:

Defendants published these false statements in May 2017, and thereafter knowingly and intentionally both through email to third parties and by sending the false statements to THR, with the knowledge and intent that THR would republish them widely to the public throughout the United States

The new filing also includes e-mails sent by Black and Perlmutter to others after a subsequent ruling in the case, claiming that Peerenboom had been named in court as a "serial liar" and had faked DNA reports that tied Laura Perlmutter to the smear campaign.

If you are strong of stomach, you can read the whole new filing below.

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