HARRISBURG – More than three dozen comic creators have filed a class action lawsuit against a Pennsylvania publisher, claiming that the organization showed a lack of communication, statements, marketing, changed publishing plans and failed to pay them.
Tom Rogers (on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated) filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on Jan. 31 versus Action Lab Entertainment of Uniontown and Bryan Seaton, of Canonsburg.
“ALE signed multiple creators to contracts with the promise of having creators’ properties put into print (as opposed to digital). ALE provided each creator a handbook. In the handbooks, ALE promised to have creators’ works released in print, acknowledged its obligations to promote and market creators’ works and acknowledged its obligations to report sales and income on a quarterly basis to all creators,” the suit says.
“ALE failed to put into print a large number of projects, failed to properly market and promote creators’ projects, failed to report sales and income to creators on a quarterly basis despite providing sample sales reports to creators, failed to properly maintain social media accounts, failed to retain persons to carry out its promises to creators and failed to do the bare minimum to drum up retailer support.”
The suit says ALE “changed terms of agreements, closed offices and furloughed or laid off staff without informing creators and did not routinely communicate with creators, often wholesale ignoring communications from creators.”
The suit goes on to detail these instances with all 38 plaintiffs, all of whom say they were negatively affected by the company’s practices.
“The ALE offices were shut down without reason from Dec. 16, 2019 to Jan. 6, 2020, during which time creators were not being paid and marketing was nor being conducted. Shawn Pryor was unable to pay any creators during this period of time. Defendant Seaton later told creators that the offices were closed for the holidays and all due payments should have been issued prior to Dec. 16, 2019. Defendant Seaton told creators that Mr. Pryor has been incapable of handling the company and left in January of 2020,” the suit says.
“In February of 2020, defendant Seaton claimed to have allegedly resigned and no one was left in charge of the company because the supposed board of directors did not replace the president. ALE shut down again in March of 2020 but did not tell any of its creators. During this time no work was performed by ALE and no creators were paid. ALE told its creators that it reopened during the last week of June 2020.”
The suit goes on to detail that the company stopped releasing material and stopped paying publishers for books which had been released recently.
“ALE told its creators that Diamond had closed in March, immediately stopped releasing all planned new releases, stopped sending sales reports, and stopped paying all publishers monies owed for books sold in February and March. ALE further said that Diamond reopened in June of 2020, started shipping new releases already in the Diamond warehouse, and started paying publishers monies owed under a 13-week repayment plan,” the suit states.
“By email dated June 30, 2020, ALE declared that Bryan Seaton was still CEO/Publisher of ALE but had decided to step down, and ‘the board’ had not replaced him or the company’s then-president. Bryan Seaton is still running ALE.”
For counts of breach of contract, declaratory judgment and fraud, the plaintiffs are seeking injunctive relief, a declaratory judgment from this Court that ALE breached its agreements with the creators and that ALE has no further right to print, sell, publish, distribute, advertise, publicize and exploit any of the properties named herein or otherwise entered into with members of the creators class not named herein, monetary damages, attorney’s costs and fees, and any additional damages the Court deems appropriate.
The plaintiff is represented by Michael S. Katz of Lopez McHugh, in Moorestown, N.J.
The defendants have not yet secured legal counsel.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania case 1:22-cv-00159
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com