A retired professional tennis player who sued an architect and the businessman’s wife, claiming their false public statements that he was a wife beater caused three private clubs to revoke his membership, may go further away with the defamation suit against the pair, a judge. ruled on Tuesday.
Justin Gimelstob filed the lawsuit in September 2021 in Santa Monica Superior Court against Richard Landry, president and founder of Landry Design Group, and Landry’s husband, Christopher Drugan.
After hearing arguments Tuesday, Judge Mark A. Young denied an anti-strategic challenge to the public participation motion filed by the defendants, whose attorneys argued in court filings that the law prohibits Gimelstob’s “obvious efforts to restrain and punish Landry’s free speech rights. and Drugan by filing the instant suit.”
The state’s anti-SLAPP law is designed to prevent people from using the courts and the potential threat of a lawsuit to intimidate those exercising their First Amendment rights.
Young ruled, however, that there was enough evidence for a jury to infer that Landry and Drugan “had serious doubts about the truth” of what they said.
The defendants admitted they were angry with Gimelstob after what they perceived as being drawn into the plaintiff’s divorce case and were even more angry with Gimelstob’s alleged statements on the day of the incident, the judge wrote.
In an affidavit filed Nov. 14, Gimelstob, 45, says fallout from the defendants’ allegedly defamatory remarks has resulted in him being banned from Brentwood Country Club — where the alleged defamation took place — as well as from the Jonathan Club and Beverly Hills Tennis. Club.
Landry is a Canadian-born American architect. Known as the “Megamansion King”, he has designed many celebrity residences.
Gimelstob is the chairman of FBR Group, which specializes in the insurance needs of wealthy clients. He has raised more than $1 million through his Justin Gimelstob Fund for Children, benefiting children with pediatric cancer as well as other youth charities, the lawsuit states.
In August and September 2020, Gimelstob was involved in a lawsuit for attorneys’ fees in his divorce case and subpoenaed Landry to testify about a home he designed and built for the plaintiff’s ex-wife, the lawsuit states.
“The manner in which Landry was served with the subpoena and the substance of his testimony at trial created significant resentment and hostility toward Gimelstob,” according to the suit.
A few weeks after Landry testified, Gimelstob went to Brentwood Country Club to play tennis with two friends, one a member at Brentwood, the other a professional tennis player who had just returned from the U.S. Open, the suit states.
Gimelstob was a frequent visitor to the club for many years after he retired as a professional tennis player in 2007, the suit states. In mid-September 2020, Gimelstob was on a tennis court hitting tennis balls with one of the friends he went clubbing with that day, the lawsuit states.
Gimelstob observed Landry and Drugan playing on an adjacent court, and at one point a tennis ball rolled into the corner of the plaintiff’s court, the lawsuit states. When Gimelstob went to retrieve it, he saw Landry by a fence, the suit states. Gimelstob jokingly told Landry, “Who’s better, you as an architect or me at tennis?”, according to the suit.
“In response, Landry and Drugan immediately became enraged, (walked) over to Gimelstob (and) began insulting him, (saying): ‘Get out of my club, you’re not here, you wife beater, you’re a criminal . , we don’t want you in our club,” according to the lawsuit, which is unclear if one or both defendants made the alleged statements.
The remarks were loud enough for Gimelstob’s friend’s wife and two young sons to hear, the lawsuit states.
Gimelstob was stunned by the remarks, but was able to return to his own tennis practice area and he and his friend continued to play, the suit states.
A short time later, Landry and Drugan were on their way to dinner when Drugan saw Gimelstob and his friend playing, walked up to within inches of plaintiff and told him, “Get out of my club, you wife beater . I dare you to hit me, I dare you. I know you’re on probation. Why don’t you hit me like you hit your wife and son? I dare you to hit me,” Gimelstob says in his court papers.
Drugan’s alleged remarks were overheard by two of Gimelstob’s friends, including Nicholas Monroe, a professional tennis player the plaintiff worked with and represented, according to Gimbelstob.
Landry and Drugan’s alleged statements were “made with the intent to harm Gimelstob both personally and professionally” because both were aware that accusing someone of domestic violence would substantially damage personal and professional relationships of that person, especially given that Gimelstob is a high-profile individual, the suit says.
Gimelstob pleaded no contest in 2019 to a battery charge for a Halloween attack on a former friend and was sentenced to three years of probation and 60 hours of community service after a judge reduced the offense to a tort.