Nick Lulli is being sued by WNEM parent company Meredith Corporation for breach of contract after leaving his job one year into a four year contract.
MLive reports Meredith wants Lulli to pay $8,674.74 for recruiting and training Lulli and his replacement, taxes, overtime expenses and productivity loss. Lulli is a also being sued for unjust encroachment after Meredith says Lulli wouldn’t refund the company after it says it put too much money into his bank account.
Lulli, who is openly gay, says his contract was invalid and extremely unjust. He also claims he was the victim of “discriminatory practices.” He signed his contract at the Saginaw CBS affiliate in 2015 and left in June 2016 and now works in PR in Florida.
He told TVSpy he attempted to settle out of court and wanted to avoid the drama and said “it was not my intention for this to go public.”
“This is a multi-billion dollar corporation going after a single man who netted less than $30,000 last year,” Lulli said in a written response to the lawsuit. “Plaintiff has nothing to gain from this matter other than bankrupting the defendant.”
He also wrote he was “a bit shocked by the lawsuit,” saying “dozens and dozens of people have left WNEM-TV with absolutely no legal challenge.”
“I am fairly certain this is a tragic attempt by Ian Bruce Rubin and/or (TV-5 general manager) Albert Joseph Blinke to obtain some sort of ‘victory’ over me, no matter how pyrrhic,” said Lulli.
Lulli was attacked in May 2015 while doing a story about a house flying both nazi and confederate flags. Part of a countersuit he’s filed claims the station did nothing to protect him. He also claims he was demoted despite getting positive performance reviews.