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Dave McMenamin
Multiple Authors
LOS ANGELES — The legal jostling between five of the Buss siblings against their sister, Lakers acting governor Jeanie Buss, continued Friday with an additional filing submitted to the Los Angeles Superior Court.
The 29-page document, reviewed by ESPN, was filed on behalf of Joey and Janie Buss in opposition to their sister and her previous petition seeking to remove them as co-trustees and void the siblings’ 5-1 vote to sell the family’s remaining stake in the team.
“This dispute turns on (1) who had the authority to decide whether the Trust would continue, (2) what event would terminate it, and (3) what the Trustee Respondents were required to do once that event occurred,” Friday’s filing says. “The Trust’s text unambiguously answers each question.”
The new filing not only argues Joey and Janie’s right to hold the vote to sell and highlights language in the trust that states a sale requires a two-thirds majority by the siblings, which they exceeded, but it also challenges the breadth of Jeanie’s rights as a co-trustee and acting governor.
The filing follows a 36-page opposition submitted to the court Oct. 7 by all five siblings — Jimmy, Johnny and Jesse included — that argued their right to terminate the family trust and sell their remaining 17.82% of the team to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger’s ownership group after the pair agreed to purchase the Lakers from Mark Walter at a $12.5 billion valuation.
Both filings come in response to Jeanie, through her lawyer Adam Streisand, submitting a 97-page petition to the court in August aimed to block the sale of the family’s stake in the team to Kushner and Iger, who, sources told ESPN, are expected to take control of the franchise following an NBA board of governors vote in November.
Friday’s filing contends that a 2017 court decision that instructed the trustees to take “whatever actions are reasonably available” to have Jeanie appointed as the controlling owner while the family trust holds Lakers stock became moot once a vote was held to terminate the trust to facilitate a sale.
“It does not require the Trust to remain in existence for Jeanie’s lifetime … or require the Trust to maintain any minimum ownership percentage,” the filing states.
The NBA requires a controlling owner to maintain a 15% stake in a team to operate in that position, though Friday’s filing states that the 15% figure is not included anywhere in the original trust or in the 2017 order.
The new filing also contends that while the family trust barred any sale of Lakers stock during Dr. Jerry Buss’ lifetime without his consent, it contains no comparable restriction connected to Jeanie. Furthermore, Friday’s filing argues that a sale to Kushner and Iger will maximize value of the trust’s 185.59 shares of the Lakers for all the beneficiaries, including Jeanie.
The filing covers two contractual sale rights the trust secured when the Walter transaction was finalized in 2025: a go-along right (commonly referred to as a tagalong provision) and a separate put right.
The put right granted by Walter would allow the siblings to sell their remaining shares at the same $10 billion valuation at which he bought the majority stake of the franchise, at discretion. The tagalong provision, agreed to at the same time, would allow the siblings to sell their shares to a new ownership group at the franchise’s new valuation — in this case $12.5 billion — if Walter ever sold his interest in the team. The filing argues that Joey and Janie enacting a vote to sell via the tagalong provision represented the more favorable economic opportunity for the trust and all six beneficiaries.
Additionally, the new filing argues that Jeanie’s petition, which held her siblings in contempt, lacks merit and asks the court to dismiss the claim. The siblings exercised voting rights expressly granted to them as beneficiaries, which the filing argues cannot constitute contempt or aiding and abetting a fiduciary breach.
“There is deep irony in [Jeanie] alleging that it is [Joey and Janie] who are putting their self-interests first,” the filing says. “The entire petition [originally filed by Jeanie] is predicated on the notion that rights expressly granted to the beneficiaries by [the trust] should be subjugated to [Jeanie’s] personal interest in remaining controlling owner. [Jeanie’s] hypocrisy should not go unnoticed.”
