On Tuesday, Dauman and George Abrams will present their case to a MA court, asking a judge to overturn their removals last month from the Sumner M. Redstone Trust and the board of directors of National Amusements, Inc., the parent company of both Viacom and CBS. Shari has called for change in the C-suite and Sumner on May 20 ousted Dauman and George Abrams, a second Viacom board member, from the NAI Redstone family trust.
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The suit was filed in Norfolk Probate and Family Court in Canton, Mass., because the trust is administered in MA.
Lawyers for Dauman, as well as Viacom board member George Abrams, asserted in a court filing on Monday that Redstone’s deteriorating health makes it imperative to “proceed with speed”.
After a 2-1/2-hour hearing in a windowless courtroom on Tuesday in MA, the state where Redstone’s trust was originated, Phelan said he may or may not decide on Dauman and Abrams’ motion for an expedited trial before he receives a formal motion for dismissal from Redstone’s lawyers, which is expected in the next few days.
The first court hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
“She has undertaken to control virtually every aspect of his life”, Fagen said.
Redstone altered the Viacom corporate bylaws to require a unanimous vote of the board to sell all or part of Paramount.
A lawyer for Dauman and Abrams, however, said Redstone is very ill and unable to speak, stand, walk, write or read, and is suffering from dementia.
The Massachusetts suit brought by Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, a long-time consigliere for Redstone, charges that Redstone’s recent actions have been improper and that he is under the influence of his daughter Shari Redstone.
Klieger said he eventually learned to understand Redstone, sometimes with the help of an interpreter, and that Redstone indicated that he no longer trusted Dauman or Abrams.
Dauman’s lawyers argue that denying them an expedited examination could mean that Sumner will die before they get to prove their point. Sumner and Shari Redstone are both on Viacom’s board.
Fagen told Phelan on Tuesday that while the trust agreement doesn’t define the term “undue influence”, the burden of proof is on Shari to disprove it. Redstone’s trust agreement is private.
The National Amusements board also controls Dauman’s director-level role at Viacom, and it’s unlikely you can be chairman of the board of directors if you’re not actually a director. He acknowledged that Shari Redstone has disagreed with her father over business decisions, but said, “The bond of family, of connection to one another, of trust, is at work here”.
Viacom Inc., a media conglomerate based in NY, owns the Paramount Pictures movie studio and pay TV channels such as MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and BET.
Dauman, meanwhile, wants the company to sell a minority stake in Paramount Pictures in hopes of better funding future projects and improving distribution.
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