LOS ANGELES — A California district court on Wednesday dismissed nine out of 10 claims made in a civil lawsuit filed against Vixen Media Group (VMG) by retired performer Kenzie Anne.
The lawsuit, brought by Kenzie Anne in April, was filed by her lawyers as a possible class action suit.
Judge Wesley L. Hsu granted the defendants' motion to dismiss on the first through ninth causes of action, with leave to amend by Kenzie Anne within 21 days of the judge's order. Hsu also severed her 10th cause of action under the state's Unfair Competition Law (UCL), granting her motion to remand on that claim alone.
Kenzie Anne, who was under contract with VMG from November 2020 until September 2022, alleges in the suit that the company is liable for a number of UCL violations, including "failing to pay minimum and overtime wages, provide meal periods and rest periods, furnish accurate wage statements, pay for vested vacation time, and timely pay final wages at termination."
She is also seeking penalties in connection with herself and other performers allegedly being "misclassified" as independent contractors by the company.
VMG removed the case to federal court in June, claiming that, under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA), federal courts have jurisdiction "if the class has more than 100 members, the parties are minimally diverse, and the amount in controversy exceeds $5 million."
The company included accounting documents estimating the potential liability at over $66 million.
When VMG moved to have the case dismissed in federal court, Kenzie Anne countered in July by moving to have the case remanded back to state court by challenging the company's claim that liability exceeded the $5 million threshold.
In his decision, Hsu ruled that VMG "met their burden of showing, by a preponderance of the evidence and based on reasonable assumptions, that the amount in controversy exceeds $5 million."
Hsu also reprimanded Kenzie Anne's legal team in his decision for including claims that "appear to have been wholly copied and pasted from another class action labor complaint," stating they "completely undermine" the credibility of the plaintiff's claims.
