Part Of West Hollywood Waiter's Case Against Manny Pacquiao Can Move Forward, Judge Rules

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - A man who alleges he was subjected to strong-arm tactics after asking to be paid $8.6 million for helping set up Manny Pacquiao's fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. can go forward with the part of his lawsuit against the Filipino fighter.

For the second time in eight months, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Sotelo denied defense motions to dismiss claims that Gabriel Rueda filed against the famed boxer.

Sotelo heard arguments on the Pacquiao motion on March 21, then took the case under submission before ruling Tuesday.

Last August, he rejected defense arguments that the parts of the case against the boxer, CBS and attorney Keith Davidson should be dismissed on free- speech grounds. However, in a separate ruling Tuesday, Sotelo put on hold the claims against those three defendants that deal with the First Amendment issues pending the outcome of their appeals. Soteo said the other causes of action against the trio can move forward.

Rueda filed his lawsuit, which includes allegations of breach of contract and fraud, in February 2016, naming Pacquiao and his trainer, Freddie Roach, CBS, Showtime Entertainment and Davidson, described in the plaintiff's court papers as a lawyer for "Roach, Pacquiao and a few other powerful people."

Rueda's suit states he served CBS President Leslie Moonves while working at Craig's restaurant in West Hollywood and told Moonves he could introduce him to Roach in order to break the ice between Al Haymon and Bob Arum, the promoters for Mayweather and Pacquiao, respectively.

Rueda claims he arranged a meeting between Roach and Moonves, with an agreement that he would get a 2 percent finder's fee of gross fight proceeds paid to CBS, Showtime Network, Pacquiao and Roach.

Davidson, on behalf of Pacquiao and Roach, met with Rueda a month later at a coffeehouse at Sunset Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, according to the lawsuit. Davidson told Rueda that if he did not accept a $50,000 settlement proposal and sign a release, he would lose his job at Craig's and "never work as an actor in this town again," the suit alleges.

After Rueda called his boss at the restaurant and confirmed that Davidson contacted Craig's, the restaurant management told him they would fire him if he did not accept the offer, because they wanted to keep Moonves' business, according to the lawsuit.

Pacquiao's lawyers argued Roach was an unlicensed agent and could not make financial promises on behalf of Pacquiao. Sotelo said the claim, if accepted, would bring about an "absurd result" that runs contrary to contract law because it make it too easy to disavow agreements that agents make with third parties on grounds they are unlicensed.

Rueda's lawyer, Amman Khan, filed a motion Monday asking that he be allowed to take depositions of various people to preserve their recollections of the relevant events, all of which occurred in 2014, because it could be years before all the appeals are decided and memories may fade.

Khan stated in his papers that Arum is now 85 years old and will likely be 88 by the time the appeals are done. Amman also noted in his court papers that Roach has Parkinson's disease, a progressive malady that can lead to dementia, and that the violent nature of boxing could affect Pacquiao's cognitive functions in the future.

A hearing on Khan's motion is scheduled May 2.

-- City News Service, photo via Wiki Commons