Blac Chyna 's ex-attorney on Wednesday said season two of "Rob & Chyna" wasn't officially picked up.- Chyna's case against the Kardashian-Jenners rests on the idea they conspired to kill the season.
Blac Chyna suffered a significant legal setback Wednesday in her lawsuit against the Kardashian-Jenner family when one of her legal team's own witnesses testified that season two of "Rob & Chyna" had never officially gotten the green light.
Walter Mosley, Chyna's former attorney and manager, made the acknowledgment under tough cross-examination by the Kardashian-Jenner family lawyer Michael G. Rhodes.
It's significant because Chyna's $100 million claim against the family rests on her allegation that the matriarch Kris Jenner rallied her daughters Kim
Called as a witness for Chyna's side midway into the trial's second week, Mosely instead gave a key victory to the Kardashian side, telling a Los Angeles jury there was no season two for anyone to kill.
Mosely testified that despite his negotiations with studio execs, and despite some preliminary filming for what might've been the first four episodes, he never received a written production notice for the season.
On direct testimony, Mosley told jurors that early in his working relationship with Chyna he helped her negotiate various TV deals, eventually landing on the E! Network, where "Rob & Chyna" season one was broadcast.
Mosley told jurors that after season one ended, he was increasingly sidelined as an executive producer but nevertheless was "focused on getting season two on its feet."
He added that he entered into negotiations with NBC Universal, E!'s parent company, about the future of the show, which turned into the network offering Chyna an amended contract.
Chyna had acknowledged under Rhodes' questioning Thursday that a February 21, 2017, agreement with the E! Network contained her signature. The agreement, drawn up as Chyna and Rob Kardashian continued to lash out at each other in public — gave the network five additional months to decide whether the show would have a second season.
The agreement paid Chyna a $100,000 kill fee upon the series' demise. The same agreement paid her a $370,000 flat fee for additional appearances on "Keeping Up With
Lynne Ciani, Chyna's lawyer, was unable to ask at least half of her questions to Mosley on Wednesday — many centered on what Chyna had told him — because of hearsay objections.
Rhodes also brought up a series of emails to show the court a trajectory of Mosley's negotiations with E!, while he waited on news for whether season two of "Rob & Chyna" would be picked up. The messages, dated from February through July, were sent when Chyna was under contract with the network.
In her original deal, the network had until March 2016 to decide whether it would renew the show, and in the amended contract Mosley helped negotiate the network had until August 2017 to decide to exercise that option, with the added financial terms Chyna secured.
Wednesday's cross-examination began with friendly banter between Rhodes and Mosley, both lawyers, before Rhodes produced a series of explosive messages that detailed how Chyna's time on the E! Network came to an end.
On February 8, 2017, the former NBC Universal counsel Jeff Fuhrman sent an email to Chyna's team, which included the former agent Ashaunna Ayers and Mosley. Fuhrman said they wanted to amend Chyna's terms "with the goal of bringing back 'Rob & Chyna.'"
Mosley said that the exchanges, which continued through July — when E!'s option to renew the show was running out — represented "a constructive pickup" but that no written production notice was ever produced by the network to Chyna's team before August 2017. He told the court he believed the show might move forward because of a press release about season two and because he saw production shoots taking place.
"As far as you know, no written notice was sent for the production of season two of 'Rob & Chyna'?" Rhodes asked Mosley.
"I did not receive that document," Mosley told the court. By June 2017, in another email, Mosley reached back out to NBC Universal executives asking, "Have we heard anything on Chyna?"
A month later he emailed executives saying "we are a couple weeks from Chyna's release date from E!" referring to the end of her amended contract.
After that email, Mosley invoiced the network for Chyna's negotiated $100,000 kill fee, which she has testified that she received.