Scarlett Johansson‘s legal team is pushing back after Disney tried to push her suit for breach of contract into private arbitration. The company filed a motion with the L.A. Superior Court Friday night to move the suit to binding arbitration in New York, People reports.
According to the American Bar Association, arbitration is a confidential process “where disputing parties agree that one or several individuals can make a decision about the dispute after receiving evidence and hearing arguments.”
Johansson’s lawyer John Berlinski responded: “After initially responding to this litigation with a misogynistic attack against Scarlett Johansson, Disney is now, predictably, trying to hide its misconduct in a confidential arbitration.”
“After initially responding to this litigation with a misogynistic attack against Scarlett Johansson, Disney is now, predictably, trying to hide its misconduct in a confidential arbitration.”
When Johansson filed suit in July, it read: “Disney intentionally induced Marvel's breach of the agreement, without justification, in order to prevent Ms. Johansson from realizing the full benefit of her bargain with Marvel.”
Disney responded: “In a futile effort to evade this unavoidable result (and generate publicity through a public filing), Periwinkle excluded Marvel as a party to this lawsuit — substituting instead its parent company Disney under contract-interference theories. But longstanding principles do not permit such gamesmanship.”
Disney added that as of Aug. 15, the movie “grossed more than $367 million in worldwide box-office receipts and more than $125 million in streaming and download retail receipts.”
Elizabeth Olsen, a fellow Marvel star, supported her suit, telling Vanity Fair: “I think she’s so tough and literally when I read that I was like, ‘good for you Scarlett.'”
