The founder and former CEO of K-pop label Ador, Min Hee-Jin, has issued a statement about her ongoing legal battle with her former employer and its parent company HYBE following a court hearing last week.
She criticises the conduct of HYBE in that legal battle, while insisting that the K-pop powerhouse has the burden of proof in this case and must demonstrate to the court that it legally terminated a previous shareholder agreement and dismissed her from the Ador CEO role last August.
Min’s lawyer has “already submitted written arguments twice refuting the injustice of the grounds for termination claimed by HYBE”, her statement reads. The issue now is that HYBE “has failed to provide any rebuttal regarding the illegality of the termination notice, among other points raised by Min’s side”.
Min’s legal battle with Ador is connected to, and somewhat over-shadowed by, the also ongoing legal battle between the label and its artist NewJeans. Their relationship with Ador collapsed after Min was pushed out of the label, resulting in the group announcing they were terminating their deal with the HYBE subsidiary last November.
Ador has sued the group insisting they can’t unilaterally terminate their contract with the company, as well as securing an injunction prohibiting NewJeans from pursuing any new commercial activities while that litigation goes through the motions.
There was a court hearing in relation to that legal battle earlier this month. The group also unsuccessfully tried to get the Seoul Central District Court to overturn Ador’s injunction. The district court declined to withdraw the injunction last week, prompting the group to take the matter to the Seoul High Court.
Although very much connected to the NewJeans litigation in terms of the bigger Ador story, legally speaking Min’s lawsuit is a separate dispute relating to different contracts, principally a shareholders agreement with HYBE, which it says was terminated before Min was removed from the CEO role.
Speaking to The Korea Herald last week, entertainment lawyer Bae Jin-sung said that, while “elements” of the Min v Ador case “may surface as context” in Ador's dispute with NewJeans, the outcome of one case is unlikely to influence the other. “The legal issues differ in detail”, the attorney explained, adding, “even if Min wins, NewJeans could still lose the main lawsuit against Ador”.
In her new statement, Min also complains that HYBE “submitted three additional written documents” less than a week before last week’s court hearing.
Her team will respond to those new documents, the statement adds, but “it should be noted that the burden of proof in this lawsuit lies with HYBE”. Which means HYBE must “prove whether the shareholders agreement” was in fact legally terminated “by their termination notice”.