The Kingston Trio, one of America’s most famed folk and pop music groups, is suing L.A.’s Greek Theatre, the City of Los Angeles, and other entities, including Ticketmaster and Live Nation, for breach of contract. (view complaint here). The lawsuit enumerates multiple and blatant breaches of contract by Greek Theatre Management, causing millions of dollars in damages to the Kingston Trio concerts in August 2024.

Misconduct by the Greek Theatre, sanctioned by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and her appointees to the Commission on Recreation and Parks, violates the Federal RICO Act by awarding Ticketmaster exclusive ticketing rights to the Greek Theatre in violation of the city mandate prohibiting such arrangements.

Ticketmaster’s non-user-friendly ordering techniques, requiring apps and various portals that the purchaser must jump through, served as frustrating barriers for many senior citizens attempting to purchase concert tickets. As a result, the city’s elderly population was effectively shut out from purchasing tickets to the two shows in August. Such misconduct is a direct violation of the California Unruh Act, which prohibits discrimination against the elderly when accessing facilities open to the public. The elderly constitute 85% of the Trio’s audience, and Greek Theatre management was aware of this beforehand in writing.

In addition to and as a direct result of the above RICO Act conspiracy, the Greek Theatre Management purposely breached a two-night concert production agreement with the Kingston Trio in August 2024, whereby they neglected to film and deliver professional video and audio by Greek management by ‘forgetting’ to record one full day of the two-day concert. This negligence by the Greek Theatre resulted in the cancellation of a full-length (two-hour special) documentary film and a full double live album, along with future Kingston Trio large-venue concerts.

This is not the first lawsuit about the mishandling of a management contract at the Greek Theatre. Rather, it appears to be part of a continuing pattern of misbehavior. Management agreements for the Greek Theatre have been the center of repeated controversies and lawsuits going back to 1992. Greek Theatre management contracts have trafficked in political corruption by city council members, along with the improper awarding of exclusive agreements, instead of true open bidding, to well-connected entertainment management companies.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and seven states are suing Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, accusing them of “coordinating” with ticket resellers and letting them “harvest millions of dollars' worth of tickets” later sold at significant markups in the secondary market, forcing customers to fork over far more than face value to see their favorite acts. The FTC also accused the companies of misleading artists and consumers via bait-and-switch pricing and falsely claiming to impose strict purchase limits despite allowing brokers to exceed them.

Clearly, these acts of misconduct are so numerous, and the cast of defendants is so large, that these breaches and fraudulent acts reflect a RICO conspiracy that reaches all the way to the Mayor’s office. Add this scandal to: (1) the mishandling of the Palisades Fire, (2) the current lawsuit where a federal judge criticized the Mayor’s inability to account for missing millions of dollars for the homeless, and (3) the current class action to ensure that our handicapped population has access to all city recreation and park facilities. Now the Mayor has a 4th scandal, in less than two years, on her hands for her mistreatment of elderly citizens, in addition to lawsuits accusing her of failing to provide for the homeless and failing to provide for the handicapped.

The plaintiff is demanding a trial by jury on all issues.

View Complaint Here.

Konrad L. Trope
TROPE AND TROPE LAW GROUP
Phone: (818) 575-7423
Email: ktrope@tropeandtropelawgroup.com

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