Lawrence ‘Moonman’ Mooney is suing his former employers Southern Cross Austereo, the owner of Triple M for over 1 million in damages – ouch!
Last year, Mooney abruptly departed from the network and lost his rumoured million dollar contract after being with the station since 2016. He then quickly hired powerhouse lawyer, John Laxon, from Laxon Lex Lawyers.
Sure, there had been rumours he wasn’t getting along with his co-host Jess Eva – but nothing concrete had ever been confirmed so it was a shock.
And yes, the ratings weren’t incredible but Mooney is such a well-known personality a swift exit didn’t seem in the cards. However, pretty quickly it became clear things weren’t amicable.
Mooney’s lawyer Laxon then released a statement that said: “My client has a contract which runs through to the end of next year, which SCA has brought to an end.
“The terms of that contract were drafted by SCA and were bargained for and agreed to by my client. He will hold SCA to those terms.
“All my client asks is that SCA honour the contract and observe the contractual arrangements which they put in place. No further comment will be made.”
Now, The Daily Telegraph has reported that Mooney was terminated from his role only one year into his fixed-term contract and Mooney’s lawyer is arguing that the termination was not warranted and Mooney should receive compensation aka damages.
According to The Herald Sun, Mooney’s lawyers stated: “At no time during the term of the contract did Mooney commit any act that would entitle SCA to terminate and/or that could be relied upon by SCA as at the date of the purported termination to terminate”.
It makes sense why Mooney would want to fight some money though because according to The Herald Sun, Mooney’s base fee was 1 million-plus GST and he could get bonuses over well over 100,000 – if his show managed to do well in the ratings and win over key demos.
Basically, Mooney lost a lot when the network terminated him.
It will be interesting to see how SCA responds.
