CELEBTV.COM EXCLUSIVE: TY PENNINGTON SUED BY FORMER FRIEND
September 11, 2007 CelebTV.com is the first to obtain court documents that show TV personality and carpenter Ty Pennington is being sued by a California art gallery owner who claims their business deal went bad.
In a lawsuit filed on September 10 in L.A. Superior Court, Melissa Ross accuses Pennington of backing out of an arrangement to showcase a high-end furniture line by Pennington along with outside artists' work in her Venice, Calif., gallery called The Jaxon House. Ross claims the gallery, which she opened in 2004, was a well-known local spot that once hosted a photo exhibit by actor Dennis Hopper.
Pennington and his wife/manager Andrea Bock, who is also named in the suit, approached Ross in 2006 about the venture, Ross claims. Pennington subsequently invested $98,000 in the company, Jaxon, Inc., she says, but later muscled out other artists and "insisted that only his designs be displayed and that the work of local designers would not be shown."
By July 2007, Ross alleges, Pennington had cut Ross out of the business entirely, although she was initially to share 49% of the business.
She is suing the TV carpenter for $3.5 million in damages for charges that include "fraudulent and deceptive conduct."
Pennington, 42, is an Atlanta-born carpenter who got his first big break on The Learning Channel's hit home makeover show "Trading Spaces." He went on to star on ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," which led to an endorsement deal with Sears.
In May of this year, Pennington had another brush with the law, when he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in Los Angeles. He was sentenced to 36 months probation, fined $1,500 and ordered to attend a 90-day alcohol education program after pleading no contest to the midemeanor charge.
