There are less than two weeks before the premiere of VH1’s reality series Basketball Wives: L.A.. One woman who won’t be a cast-member is Allison Mathis, the mother of Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh’s child. But at least she can claim a small legal victory.
In May, Bosh sued Shed Media, the producers of the show, and Allison Mathis for allegedly infringing his trademark and publicity rights. After the lawsuit was filed, Bosh and Shed reached a settlement — Allison Mathis was let go from the show. But Bosh continued to pursue Mathis anyway, leading to a decision on Tuesday where the judge dismissed the case.
After Bosh sued Mathis in LA Superior Court, Mathis filed her own countersuit in Florida Circuit Court that alleged NBA star Chris Bosh had ruined her chance to star on a big reality television show.
Mathis claims that she previously lived with Bosh in Texas when Bosh suddenly and without explanation abandoned her when she was 7 months pregnant. Allison says, she was in deteriorating medical condition and had to move in with her mother in Maryland, before later relocating to Florida, where she caught a break by making a deal to appear on “Basketball Wives”.
Allegedly, Bosh’s interference pushed producers to dump her from the program, leading to a situation where she’s now unemployed and broke. To remedy that, Allison Mathis sued Chris Bosh for about $250,000 — her estimate of the compensation she would have received for appearing on the show.
And perhaps because of Mathis’ still-pending claims, which Bosh denies, he has continued his own claims against Mathis.
But a California judge sees no reason why Bosh’s lawsuit should continue since neither of the parties are based in California nor have much contact there. Among the reasons why the judge dismissed Chris Bosh’s lawsuit is lack of personal jurisdiction:
“Bosh requests an opportunity to conduct jurisdictional discovery in lieu of outright dismissal. His assertion that Mathis ‘is an aspiring actress . . .who has mastered a Californian accent’ is not a colorable showing that personal jurisdiction may exist over her. Rather, it amounts to ‘little more than a hunch that [discovery] might yield jurisdictionally relevant facts.'”
Basketball Wives: L.A. premieres August 29th on VH1.
