RESOLVING THE LEDGER
This is one outlet's own report from TMZ — the article as it was filed. Other outlets are covering the same event; open the full story to compare every source side by side.
See the full story · 1 sources
Kevin Hart's company was shut down in its effort to keep a legal battle with two former employees out of the public eye and handled in private arbitration ... TMZ has learned.
According to court docs, obtained by TMZ, a Los Angeles Superior County Court judge denied Kevin's request to move his case against Eric Eddings and Lesley Gwam to arbitration, which would keep it out of the public court system.
The court found the agreements Eric and Lesley signed with Kevin's company, Hartbeat, had arbitration provisions but found that the ex-employees made a "persuasive showing" that the arbitration agreements were unconscionable and could not be enforced against them. As such, the judge denied Hartbeat's motion to move the case to arbitration.
As TMZ previously reported, Hartbeat sued Eric, who was hired in 2022, and Lesley, who was hired in 2023. The actor's company claimed the duo obtained confidential information about the company's podcast division while employed \u2026 and then turned around and started their own podcast company with the info.
Kevin claimed the duo used the info to create a pitch deck to raise millions for their new business. His lawsuit asked for an injunction prohibiting the ex-employees from launching their podcast business.
For their part, Eric and Lesley denied using any info they learned at Hartbeat \u2026 and pointed out they both had previous experience in the industry before Hartbeat.
AIPROPX is an independent multi-source news index — we track, compare, and connect coverage from across the web into one place you won't find anywhere else.