CHICAGO (jGLi) – After four months of making himself scarce, newly-minted pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather, Jr. finally relented to be placed under questioning by lawyers of eight-division champion Filipino Manny Pacquiao two days prior to Mr. Pacquiao’s controversial majority decision win over Mexican champion Juan Manuel Marquez.
Word of Mayweather’s long-awaited deposition last Nov. 10 was enclosed in a motion filed Nov. 16 by his lawyer, Mark G. Tratos, where he also requested the United States District Court of Las Vegas, Nevada to order “an itemization of Pacquiao’s attorney’s fees and suspend ruling until Defendant (Mayweather) has had an opportunity to respond to the itemized fees, or in the alternative that this Court drastically reduce the claimed rates and hours, as they are patently unreasonable.”
Tratos said during the seven-hour deposition, his client “answered the questions asked of him and was never instructed not to answer any question” posed by Pacquiao’s lawyers.
Tratos said when it was his turn to depose Mr. Pacquiao, the Filipino champion “is resisting taking his own deposition” when he scheduled Mr. Pacquiao last Nov. 22 in Las Vegas. He said Pacquiao offered instead to have his deposition taken either “in the Philippines or via videoconference.”
Deposition is a device employed by a party to a civil or criminal action, prior to trial, to require the adverse party to disclose information that is essential for the preparation of the requesting party’s case and that the other party alone knows or possesses.
Jury trial of the $5-million defamation suit filed by Manny Pacquiao is slated to be held during the summer next year. Pacquiao filed the lawsuit after Mayweather and his father, Floyd Mayweather, Sr. and others were reported to have accused Pacquiao of taking performance-enhancing drug when Pacquiao became unbeatable in the ring.
Earlier, when Pacquiao’s lawyers led by David Marroso asked Mr. Mayweather to be deposed, Mayweather tried to avoid the deposition, saying he was “in strict and unrelenting training camp.”
FILMED BURNING $100 BILL
In his motion, Mr. Marroso said, “From June through September 2011, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. refused to appear for deposition, defied a Court Order, filed seriatim “emergency” motions and appeals, and misrepresented his whereabouts and responsibilities. Manny Pacquiao was forced to incur more than $100,000 in legal fees over four months responding to Mayweather’s baseless emergency filings and exposing Mayweather’s lies.”
As a result of Mayweather’s delay in showing up at a deposition, Mayweather’s lawyer offered to pay for the attorney’s fees of Manny Pacquiao’s lawyers.
Marroso, in turn, told the court that they “spent significant time investigating Mayweather’s whereabouts during the months-long timeframe Mayweather claimed to be in strict and unrelenting training camp.” They monitored “Mayweather’s social media websites such as Twitter; searched public Internet blogs; reviewed countless Internet news sources for reports and photographic/video evidence; reconciled different news stories and reports; confirmed the efficacy of the evidence; and pieced together a timeline tracking Mayweather’s movements and activities.”
Marroso said among the findings of their investigation showed that on July 1, when Pacquiao offered to depose Mayweather and Mayweather declined, Mayweather hosted a party at a nightclub in Atlanta, Georgia; the next day, July 2, Mayweather encouraged fans to join him at “Club Eve in Aria Hotel in Las Vegas”; On July 3, Mayweather attended an adults-only “Midnite Theme Park Party” at Circus Circus; on July 9, Mayweather attended a party at a nightclub in Atlanta; on July 10, Mayweather hosted a party with rapper Gucci Mane at a different club in Atlanta, where he was captured on film burning a $100 bill; on July 13, Mayweather was in a nightclub in Miami; and on July 16, he sent out a message on Twitter: “2nite I’m at club #Dream … It’s going 2 b crazy.”
When Mr. Marroso presented a $93,743.50 attorney’s fees for his circuitous investigation and legal effort to depose Mayweather for a $447-an-hour work for 196.9 hours of work, Tratos said Mr. Marroso’s “math does not add up,” saying it is unreasonable and without “adequate itemization.”
Judge Larry R. Hicks is expected to make a ruling on Tratos’ motion very shortly. (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
