Practices
Fyre Festival
Ryan Hayden Smith Successfully Defends Ja Rule against $100 Million Fyre Festival Case
Ryan Hayden Smith and his team defeated the famous California law firm Geragos & Geragos in the $100 million Fyre Festival class-action lawsuit filed against his client Ja Rule. Ja Rule, believing in the project like many others, signed onto Billy McFarland’s event that was to take place on the Bahamian island of Great Exuma. These plans collapsed due to Billy’s misdoings, pulling wool over the eyes of the whole world while defrauding millions. Billy was ultimately sentenced to 6-year term in federal prison for wire fraud. Afterwards, ticket holders in several states filed class action lawsuits against the Fyre Festival organizers, including Ja Rule.
With angry investors on his heals, Ja Rule hired Ryan Hayden Smith and his team to defend him. Once Ryan and his team were on the case, they spent countless hours pouring over the facts and combing for anything to help Ja Rule show he was not the right man to sue. Ultimately, Ryan realized that getting the case against Ja Rule dismissed was possible, so he and his team worked overtime to craft a motion necessary to relieve Ja Rule. The dismissal was argued in Federal Court before a Federal judge. Ultimately, the judge was persuaded by Ryan’s arguments and the writings drafted by him and his team, so in July 2019, The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed the claims against Ja Rule.
Plaintiffs attempted to supplement their complaint with additional pleadings but factual basis of Geragos & Geragos complaint was based mostly on inaccurate information from the Netflix and Hulu Fyre Festival documentaries. The Court sided with Ja Rule, denied the supplemental pleadings, and reaffirmed the dismissal. After the judgment, Ryan observed that the facts showed that the ruling was “nothing short of a total vindication” of Ja Rule. You can read more about the Fyre Festival lawsuit in the links below.
