Katherine Heigl sued the California-based non-profit dog rescue The Pitty Committee for breach of contract, defamation and economic sabotage following a soured business partnership between the organization and the actress’ animal rescue the Jason Heigl Foundation.
Heigl and her mother Nancy Heigl filed the 22-page lawsuit, which TheWrap has obtained, on Wednesday. In it, the pair states their legal battle with The Pitty Committee (TPC) and its owner Alyssa Deetman is over a contractual deal the Jason Heigl Foundation (JHF) made with the TPC to make a monthly donation of $5,000. In exchange, TPC was to rescue “a minimum prescribed number of dogs of JHF’s choosing.” The lawsuit claims JHF paid “over six figures of funding to TPC.”
The legal document goes on to say that, at some point, JHF discovered TPC and Deetman saw their contributions as “a proverbial ‘blank check,’ but were simultaneously incapable of fulfilling their obligations” under their one-year arrangement. The mother-daughter duo claims Deetman, in particular, “completely mismanaged” the money given to them by JHF yet continued to request “additional funding” outside of their agreement. When JHF inquired about details about the whereabouts of the donations, they never received answers, which led to hold-ups in rescued dogs finding homes or foster care.
Because of the drama, JHF decided not to renew its contract with TPC once it expired, per the lawsuit. In response, the Heigls claim Deetman took to social media and launched a “smear campaign” against them and JHF in the form of “false, defamatory and derogatory accusations,” including alleged lies that JHF “mistreated dogs, failed to provide promised funding and stole from TPC.” The Heigls say Deetman did so in an effort to “ruin JHF and the Heigls’ reputations and/or coerce some sort of monetary payout.”
“Despite knowing that her statements are false, Deetman failed to remove and retract her false and malevolent online statements, thereby forcing Plaintiffs to bring this lawsuit,” per the suit, which includes photo examples of the alleged defamatory social media posts.
The document accuses Deetman and TPC of defamation, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage and breach of contract. It calls for a “trial by jury on all issues and claims so triable,” and demands actual damages in an amount that is to be determined at trial as well as a permanent injunction that blocks Deetman from making defamatory statements and an order requiring her to publish appropriate retractions and remove all defamatory statements.
