Double setbacks for Avenatti
others left Eagan Avenatti to form their own firm, some clients went with them, angering Avenatti.
Frank alleges that Eagan Avenatti cheated him out of millions of dollars in compensation.
As part of its bankruptcy settlement, Eagan Avenatti agreed to pay Frank $4.85 million. Avenatti guaranteed that if the firm missed the deadlines for making the payment, which it did, he would personally be required to pay Frank.
To enforce the personal guarantee, Frank sued Avenatti, and on Monday he won the case.
Daniels, the adult film star whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is represented by Avenatti & Associates, which operates out of the same offices as Eagan Avenatti and uses the same attorneys. Daniels is trying to void a nondisclosure agreement that bars her from discussing her alleged sexual affair in 2006 with Donald Trump.
Last week, a judge dismissed the defamation suit that Avenatti filed on Daniels’ behalf against Trump, finding the president was exercising his right to free speech when he attacked her credibility on Twitter.
Avenatti had another reversal last month at the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. The Senate Judiciary Committee refused to interview an Avenatti client, Julie Swetnick, who alleged that Kavanaugh attended a 1982 party where where she said she was gang-raped.
In the Santa Ana trial, 520 Newport Center Drive, an arm of Irvine Co., alleged that Eagan Avenatti missed $213,254 in rent payments over the last four months for its ocean-view suite on the 14th floor of an office building at Fashion Island.
Nobody from Eagan Avenatti showed up for the trial.
Superior Court Judge Robert J. Moss ordered the firm to vacate the premises and pay the landlord the full amount of overdue rent. He also canceled the remaining three months of the lease. If the firm fails to move out, it could take a few weeks for the Orange County Sheriff ’s Department to enforce the eviction.
In court papers filed by Avenatti, the firm said it deducted the cost of needed repairs from its rent payments but did not receive proper credit.
Irvine Co. denied that the offices needed any serious repairs. And the lease, signed by Avenatti, says the tenant “understands that it shall not make repairs at landlord’s expense or by rental offset.”
At the short morning trial, Mark A. Kompa, an Irvine Co. attorney, called just three witnesses. He asked one of them, Irvine Co. assistant manager Abigail Yocam, what happened to the last rent payments received from Eagan Avenatti in July.
She testified: “The checks bounced.”