Kevin Hart Fights To Dismiss ‘Baseless’ Lawsuit, Refuses To Settle With Sex Tape Partner
Nov. 12 2019, Updated 6:34 p.m. ET
Kevin Hart is refusing to settle with sex tape partner Montia Sabbag in her emotional distress lawsuit against him. RadarOnline.com can exclusively reveal the comedian is fighting Sabbag’s request for more time to file a Second Amended Complaint after the case was dismissed.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Sabbag’s Original Complaint was dismissed on September 17, 2019 for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
After filing a First Amended Complaint, it was later dismissed on October 29 because it failed to properly allege the citizenship of defendant Cosmopolitan, which is the hotel the sex tape took place.
She had until November 8, 2019 to file a Second Amended Complaint to resolve the issue. But instead, she filed a Motion for Extension of Time to File Second Amended Complaint.
In the filing, she explained how “some of the served Defendants, through their counsel, even engaged in conversations with Plaintiff’s counsel to resolve some of the issues pending before this Court.”
She continued that the “Resolution Talks” had been “seemingly fruitful.” The various parties had an “open mind” and “willingness” to see if resolution was possible in the early stages of litigation.
The Resolution Talks continued despite the court dismissing the First Amended Complaint.
“The Resolution Talks however have been hindered/impacted given the due date of the Second Amended Complaint,” she claimed in the filing. “Plaintiff is of the position that it is in the best interests of all parties and this Court, for the sake of preserving its judicial resources, to provide Plaintiff with the requested extension, with the caveat that the involved parties continue proceeding with the Resolution Talks that were previously in progress.”
She continued, “The undersigned is of a good-faith belief that should this extension be granted the involved parties will likely have resolved some of the issues pending before this Court and this Court’s intervention will therefore only be necessary to resolve the issues which remain. In turn, this Court will have the ability to focus the litigation proceedings on only those pressing issues.”
Sabbag is requesting to extend the date to file the Second Amended Complaint to December 12, 2019.
Then on November 11, 2019, Hart, 40, filed an Opposition and Request to Strike Plaintiff’s Motion for Extension of Time to File Second Amended Complaint.
Hart claimed the settlement discussions were conducted “without his permission.”
“As a factual matter, Defendant Hart was not a party to any such settlement discussions, and has had no recent communications with Plaintiff or Plaintiff’s counsel regarding settlement,” the filing read. “Nor did Defendant Hart agree to any extended deadline for filing the Second Amended Complaint, in connection with settlement discussions or otherwise.”
The actor then accused her of prolonging the legal war.
“Most litigation involves settlement discussions at some point, but Plaintiff can cite to no authority for the proposition that supposed progress in such discussions is automatic grounds for delay. It is not,” he claimed. “Plaintiff is improperly attempting to drag out the litigation in order to delay the inevitable determination that her claims are, in fact, baseless. Her stated hopes of deferring the expense inherent in the litigation that she commenced, and preserving 'scarce judicial resources' do not constitute meritorious grounds for such delay.”
Sabbag is suing Hart, his former friend Jonathan Todd Jackson, who was arrested and charged with extortion, Fameolous, the site who published Hart and Sabbag’s sex tape, Cosmopolitan and other Defendants.
In her Original Complaint, she claimed the comedian “negligently or intentionally authorized, allowed and otherwise permitted Jackson access to Hart’s hotel room suite at Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and breached their duty of care to M Sabbag.”
She claimed Jackson caused her to be “secretly videotaped without her knowledge or consent, while she was engaged in private, consensual sexual relationships with Hart in Hart’s private bedroom suite at the Cosmopolitan.”
Defendants posted a two-minute and 48-second “highlight reel” to obtain “tremendous financial benefit.” She claimed the incident was to “promote Hart’s Irresponsible tour.”
She claims to have “suffered, and continues to suffer, tremendous emotional distress.”
Hart revealed someone was attempting to extort him over the sex tape in a 2017 Instagram Video. Jackson denied the extortion claims despite the charges against him.