Stephens Media wants Greenspun to pay legal fees

Stephens Media, the parent company of the Review-Journal, spent six figures preparing to defend itself against a federal court lawsuit filed by Las Vegas Sun owner Brian Greenspun.

Now Stephens Media wants Greenspun to pay up.

“The reality is that defendants incurred substantial legal fees and costs defending themselves against the serious, albeit unripe and unfounded, antitrust charges leveled against them,” Stephens Media said in an 18-page motion filed Monday.

Before Greenspun took over the Sun, his siblings signed a letter of intent to end a 25-year-old joint operating agreement governing production of Las Vegas’ two daily newspapers.

Greenspun objected to the letter of intent and sued Stephens Media, though none of his relatives, claiming company officials colluded with his siblings to close the Sun.

In the meantime, Greenspun worked out a deal with his siblings to take over the Sun and its parent company Greenspun Media Group. After that deal was finalized, Greenspun on July 23 filed a motion to dismiss his lawsuit against Stephens Media.

“This action is in the early stages of litigation and defendants have not expended substantial resources in defending this action,” his attorney, Leif Reid, wrote at the time.

While there was little movement in the suit during the past year, Stephens Media produced more than 55,000 pages of documents and paid a potential expert witness more than $15,000 in preparation for the case. The company had also made arrangements for the deposition of CEO Warren Stephens, though Greenspun canceled that hearing.

Stephens Media argued that Greenspun should not have filed the lawsuit before he had a chance to make a deal with his siblings.

Because Stephens Media was not involved in those discussions, the company “did not have the luxury of being able to stop all work in the case,” according to the motion filed Monday.

“It is convenient for (Greenspun) to belatedly opine that defendants were not required to actively litigate this action after early 2014,” the motion states. “Such a myopic view, however, ignores the uncertain nature of the prospective Greenspun transaction and the many months it took to complete.”

According to the letter of intent, the majority of the Greenspuns had agreed to end the joint operating agreement that took effect in 1989 and was amended in 2005. The four Greenspun siblings were each to receive $70,000 and the family would retain ownership of the Sun’s website. In addition, the Greenspuns would own the web domain name lasvegas.com, which they currently lease from Stephens Media for $1 million to $2.5 million annually. That URL is used by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Stephens Media would no longer pay the Greenspuns a share of annual profits from the joint operating agreement and would cease printing and delivering the Sun as a six- to 10-page daily insert in the Review-Journal.

But when Greenspun took over the media conglomerate, he broke off talks to end the joint operating agreement.

Stephens Media officials declined comment Monday, and neither Greenspun nor Reid could be reached.

Contact reporter David Ferrara at 702-380-1039 or dferrara@reviewjournal.com. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker.