Las Vegas-based magician David Copperfield is suing a local company in a dispute over work at his $80 million private island compound in the Bahamas.
An attorney for Copperfield’s firm David Copperfield’s Disappearing Inc. and two related companies filed suit in Clark County District Court this week against Splashes Creative Services Corp., described in the lawsuit as a company that was dissolved in January.
The suit says Splashes was hired to design, fabricate and install theatrical effects at the Islands of Copperfield Bay in Musha Cay, which is rented for $37,500 per day to groups of up to 12 people.
Copperfield’s Musha Cay retreat covers 700 acres spread across 11 islands, according to a 2011 Wall Street Journal story.
The resort compound is part of Exuma Cays, a group of 365 islands in the Bahamas, 300 miles from southern Florida, the Journal reported.
Splashes was hired to work on features called the Secret Village Entryway or the Village Tunnel Entryway, but the features it installed “have proven defective,” and Splashes has failed to correct the problems, the suit says.
The suit also claims Splashes principal Robert North went to work for Copperfield’s company, that Copperfield’s company built a workshop for him called an illusion factory and that North then walked off the job in April after 13 months of work.
The suit seeks an injunction barring North from working for competing magicians during the balance of his three-year employment agreement with Copperfield’s company.
It also seeks a court order confirming that North is required not to disclose trade secrets.
Copperfield’s suit claims that North breached an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing in part by “forming business alliances or relationships for his sole benefit (to plaintiff‘s exclusion) with other competing magicians while still on the payroll of plaintiff.”
North and other officials with Splashes couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on the suit; the phone number for Splashes is no longer active.
The Wall Street Journal story featuring Copperfield’s compound said the illusionist purchased it for $50 million several years ago and had spent nearly $30 million renovating and expanding its high-end resort.