Viva la resolution: Bam settles fight lawsuit
KAREN HUCKS; The News Tribune
Published: September 29th, 2006 01:00 AM
The fight in a Seattle parking lot lasted less than a minute, and likely would have been forgotten.
Except that one of the fighters was professional skateboarder Mike Vallely. And his buddy, Bam Margera – skateboarder, movie star, filmmaker and stuntman – filmed the ruckus from his hotel room window.
Margera and Vallely included 38 seconds of footage in their next movies, Margera’s “CKY 3” and Vallely’s “Mike V’s Greatest Hits.”
When Tom Sayers of Port Orchard and Adam Dailey of Tacoma found out four years later that they’d become film stars, they sued. That lawsuit – filed in U.S. District Court in 2005 – almost brought skateboarding fame to Tacoma.
Jury selection was to begin Monday in Judge Robert Bryan’s courtroom but the parties settled out of court Wednesday and a confidentiality agreement silenced everyone involved.
The attorney for Sayers and Dailey wouldn’t comment. An attorney for Vallelly and his company didn’t return calls.
Gene Malady, the Media, Penn., lawyer who’s been Margera’s lawyer for five years – “from the beginning, when Bam was nobody” – confirmed the case was done but nothing more.
So there’s no way to know who paid whom, or if anybody paid anybody anything, to end the suit.
Better known are Margera and Vallely.
Margera, born Brandon Cole Margera in West Chester, Penn., is a professional skateboarder, an actor, a director, a radio personality and the creator of the “CKY” video series – featuring skating, pranks and stunts.
The 27-year-old is the star of the television series “Viva la Bam” and one of Johnny Knoxville’s crew in the two “Jackass” movies. He has endorsed a variety of products, including shoes, DVDs and a deodorant.
Vallely, a 36-year-old New Jersey native who lives in Long Beach, is a professional skateboarder and a singer in the rock band, Revolution Mother. The father of two has appeared on “Viva La Bam” and in Margera’s “CKY” series.
A former professional wrestler, Vallely is known by skateboarders for aggressiveness, thanks to the “CKY” scene Sayers and Dailey sued over: “Mike Vallely vs. Four Random Jocks.”
In the scene, according to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, Vallely “holds his own” against four men he said had insulted him.
Vallely’s trial brief, filed in August, says he was in Seattle for a pro skateboard tour June 1, 2001, when Sayers, Dailey and two of their friends made derogatory comments to him and another skateboarder in a convenience store parking lot on North Fifth Avenue near the Seattle Center.
He said the altercation that followed involved some shoving and punches, but no one got hurt.
Vallely said he was defending himself and didn’t know Margera was filming the incident from his nearby hotel room. He said didn’t need the men’s consent to use their images because the event was newsworthy and their likenesses had no commercial value.
Margera’s brief says Sayers and Dailey had gotten drunk at a Mariners baseball game and started the fight. Margera contends he recorded the incident “by happenstance” after another man in his hotel room called him to the window when the fight was about to begin.
Sayers and Dailey contended Vallely and Margera acted together and used the Washington men’s images without their permission.
They said Vallely battered them, caused them emotional distress, invaded their privacy, disfigured them, made them lose salary, impaired their earning capacities and caused them pain and suffering.
Margera’s documents stated Sayers said the lawsuit was worth $10 million, and that Dailey said he wanted “the money for the entire video.”
Malady, Margera’s lawyer, said he was sure all the skateboarders in Tacoma will be disappointed the suit never went to trial, and would have lined up to see Margera come to court.
He said his family has known Margera since his wife taught the boy in second grade.
“She knew then,” Malady said, “that he was going to be a wonderful human being destined for great things.”
Link found at SkateDaily.net
Topic: best fighters in skateboarding *excluding Mike Vallely (Read 9819 times)