'RHOBH' Star Mauricio Umansky's Real Estate Company Slammed Over Attempt to Delay Lawsuit Over Nightmare Tenants

A former ABC exec scoffed at Mauricio Umansky real-estate firm’s attempt to delay the civil trial over the alleged nightmare tenants they placed in his Los Angeles home, RadarOnline.com can exclusively reveal.

Stephen McPherson, the former Emmy Award-winning president of ABC primetime entertainment from 2004 to 2010, filed the legal brief asking a Superior Court judge to reject a motion by The Agency for a continuance.

The lawsuit claims The Agency failed to vet the renters who allegedly caused about $1 million in damages to the $12 million home and belongings – including a 2005 Emmy statuette that was decapitated.

McPherson, who filed the lawsuit in 2021, hit the roof when The Agency recently filed a motion to delay the trial which was supposed to begin next month.

“The Defendants could have filed this request for a continuance by notice motion months ago to give the Plaintiff a fair chance to respond but they chose to use last minute surprise instead,” the scathing brief by renowned attorney John Torbett stated.

“As can be seen herein, none of the issues presented in the Defendants’ Application are new developments in this case that could justify waiting until January 18, 2024, to file this request for a continuance of trial …. when the trial is merely 26 days away.”

As RadarOnline.com previously reported, The Agency steered the married couple into the furnished mansion in October 2020 under a six-month lease at $55k a month, court documents showed.

The couple allegedly proceeded to rummage through a storage closet and damage expensive collector designer clothes, remove and vanished artwork and furniture, pillage the wine cellar, and gift two couches to the housekeeper’s husband. McPherson said items are still missing.

When the lease expired in April 2021, the couple allegedly refused to leave and decided to homestead rent-free, forcing McPherson to file eviction papers in housing court at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We finally got an eviction with the (L.A. County) Sheriff after six months,” a frustrated McPherson told RadarOnline.com in October.

Oddly, The Agency requested a delay in the case because it wanted to give the tenants a chance to respond to a cross-complaint they filed in August 2022.

But McPherson’s lawyers charged The Agency waited until February 2023 to serve the lawsuit – which was allegedly ignored, the court documents claimed.

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“Defendants’ counsel conveniently decided to re-serve the cross-complaint in December, less than 60 days before trial, and use the new date for response as an excuse to continue the trial,” Torbett charged. “If Defendants’ counsel really believed that service of process was defective, she could have re-served [the tenant] at any time since February 2023, but she did not do so.”

The Agency also complained the parties have yet to negotiate the case in mediation – but McPherson argued the swanky real-estate company canceled a December 11 sit-down because “something urgent has come up with the insurance adjuster assigned to the Defendants’ claim.”

“None of these claims constitute ‘good cause’ sufficient for this court to grant their request,” McPherson argued.

The case is ongoing. As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Mauricio and The Agency recently settled a separate lawsuit over a $32 million Malibu home sale.