Ad Agency sues Broadway producer Scott Rudin for over $6 million

Broadway power-player Scott Rudin is being sued by advertising agency, SpotCo, for $6.3 million according to a lawsuit filed on Aug 6th.

The agency claims that the producer hadn't paid on invoices for work done for productions such as To Kill a Mockingbird and West Side Story.

Reported by Law360.com, “Spot and Company Inc. claims that since at least 2014 it has had an oral agreement with Rudin and his "business entity pyramid" — a nesting doll of Rudin-associated companies including Scott Rudin Productions, Inc. — but that following a September dispute, the big-name producer stopped paying the company.”

According to the suit, Rudin’s company would partially pay older debts to the agency while accruing new debts at the same time. Eventually, the debts became too large and multiple attempts to collect from Rudin became unsuccessful.

"In the months that followed, the parties attempted to resolve the issues without resorting to litigation. SpotCo's repeated requests for payment of monies owed were ignored and the theatrical LLCs, Rudin, and SRP still have not paid the outstanding amounts owed."

It appears that issues reached a new level when Spotco saw that Rudin paid $3 million to the New York Times in January.

According to the complaint, "SpotCo had already included the January 2020 hard costs for the purchasing of advertisements with the New York Times in its invoices. However, after learning of the payments made directly to the New York Times, SpotCo revised the amounts sought, and the amounts sought in this lawsuit reflect those revised amounts."

According to law360.com, “The lawsuit accuses Rudin and his entities of beaching an oral contract, breach of implied in fact contract, breach of the warranty of good faith and fair dealing, and unjust enrichment, seeking the $6.3 million payment for work on nearly a dozen projects or jobs.”

Knowing that SpotCo had to put a number of their employees on furlough due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I wonder if things would have been different if Rudin had paid the millions he owed.

Scott Rudin has not issued a statement on the suit as of yet.

The case is SpotCo v. Scott Rudin et al. in the Supreme Court for the State of New York, County of New York.

Update:

8/7 - Rudin denies the claim, releasing the following statement from lawyer Jonathan Zavin: “The case has no merit and the defendants intend to contest it vigorously.”

This is a developing story and we will update it with new information as it becomes available.