Director William Webb has sued the DGA for allegedly overstepping its authority in collecting foreign levies on behalf of nonmembers, echoing a nearly identical suit Webb's attorneys filed against the WGA in the fall.
Webb ("Sunset Strip," "California Girls"), who has never belonged to the DGA, is seeking class-action status for the Los Angeles Superior Court action filed Thursday on behalf of any other person who is allegedly owed foreign levies by the DGA.
"This secret collection and retention of monies has been going on for 14 years," according to the lawsuit. "In the case of Webb and other nonmembers of the union, DGA has not obtained from them the right to collect such monies, nor informed them that it has collected such monies, nor paid out such monies."
Webb further complained that the DGA is taking an unspecified "commission" as a fee for collecting the money, which is generated from levies on blank media sales, cable transmissions of free-to-air television, copying done by educational institutions and video rentals.
The amount of money at stake is not disclosed, but plaintiffs attorneys estimate that both the DGA and WGA West have collected at least $10 million in foreign levies since the early 1990s.
DGA officials said Friday that they would vigorously challenge the lawsuit.
"The guild considers the lawsuit completely baseless," DGA officials said. "Although the guild does not generally comment on pending litigation, the DGA has spent considerable time and effort to distribute tens of millions of dollars received from foreign collection societies to guild members and nonmembers alike."
Plaintiffs attorney Neville Johnson and his firm filed a similar action against WGA West in September on behalf of writer-director William Richert. That case is still in the process of achieving class-action status, according to the firm.
In Webb's case, the DGA is accused of collecting foreign levies since at least 1992 as the American Distributing Agent for the money. The plaintiff alleges that DGA has no right to collect the money on behalf of nonmembers.
Jesse Hiestand writes for The Hollywood Reporter.
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