(1991) Tags: Disney
RICHARD DREYFUSS v. Walt Disney Pictures
Plaintiff Richard Dreyfuss starred in “What About Bob?,” a 1991 comedy film with Bill Murray. Murray plays Bob Wiley, a psychiatric patient who follows his egotistical psychiatrist Dr. 14 Leo Marvin (Dreyfuss) on vacation, befriends the other members of Marvin’s family, pushing the doctor over the edge. The film is number 43 on Bravo’s “100 16 Funniest Movies.” The movie was the 19th biggest movie of 1991, a financial success earning a domestic box office gross of $63,707,829. This motion picture is in profits and Dreyfuss seeks an audit to recover owed profits.
Robinson Inc. was retained by Richard Dreyfuss to do an audit at Disney with regard to the movie “What About Bob?” Robinson Inc. began the process to audit Richard Dreyfuss’ profit participation in “What About Bob?” in, or around, July of 2014. However, upon learning who Richard Dreyfuss had retained, Disney refused to let Robinson Inc. perform the audit, claiming that Robinson Inc. was not a nationally recognized firm.
In response to these refusals to let Robinson Inc. do the audit it was hired to do, Plaintiffs informed Disney of Robinson Inc.’s expertise in this area of profit participation audits and the experience and national recognition of the firm. However, Disney still refused to permit Robinson Inc. to go forward with these audits.
Disney has not stated any basis for its conclusion that Robinson Inc. is not a nationally recognized firm. Apparently, no one can leave a “nationally recognized firm,” and start out on his or her own without running afoul of Disney’s policy regarding the same. What Disney has done is reduce an already very small pool of auditors to a nearly non-existent puddle, and made it exceedingly difficult for profit participants to retain the best possible representation and be paid the monies they are due.
Most auditors work on an hourly or set price basis. There are few contingency auditors, but Robinson Inc. is working on a contingency basis for the Plaintiffs in this action. If the Plaintiff in this action cannot hire a contingency auditor, then there will be no audit. Based on information and belief, Disney refused to let Robinson Inc. perform these audits because Robinson Inc. is a particularly effective and aggressive auditor who is usually able to achieve large recoveries for its clients.