A group of SAG members, which included actors Martin Sheen, Ed Asner, and Ed Harris, filed suit earlier this year to stop the vote on the merger. When that suit was rejected by a judge in March, the group continued its legal battle until Wednesday, May 17.
David Casselman, an attorney for the group, announced the decision in a letter to SAG counsel Robert Bush. He cited the vote that took place approving the merger as a reason to drop the suit. "After careful consideration, largely reflecting on the results of the recent merger election, my clients have reached the conclusion that continued prosecution of the pending litigation would not assist the cause they initially sought to champion,” he wrote.
Sheen's group had initially sought to prevent the vote from taking place. But the merger voted easily passed with more than three-quarters of members approving it. Still, Sheen and his group claim there was "abuses of the process" leading up to it.
Casselman's letter indicates the group is still weary of the merger, but "it is their fondest hope that with their support, the SAG promises made leading up to the merger might actually become a reality."
SAG-AFTRA had previously threatened to go after each anti-merger litigant personally for legal fees, but sounded conciliatory in the wake of the group's decision.
“Dropping this frivolous lawsuit is the first good decision the plaintiffs have made," said Ned Vaughn, SAG-AFTRA executive vice president.
"We have said from the beginning that the lawsuit was baseless and that the plaintiffs could not and would not prevail. We are pleased that the plaintiffs now recognize that continuing forward in the wake of the Court's wholesale rejection of their arguments does nothing but waste more member dues dollars," Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA's general counsel, said in a statement. "We look forward to the court's dismissal of the complaint."
