Bond investor Bill Gross on Tuesday asked a California court to overrule a request by Pacific Investment Management Co. to throw out his civil lawsuit against the company.
Attorneys for Gross said in a new filing that Pimco’s request to dismiss the breach-of-contract suit filed late last year “should be overruled on all grounds.”
Pimco’s dismissal request “not only ignores the allegations of plaintiff’s complaint, but substitutes their own facts for those alleged in the complaint,” Gross’s attorneys wrote.
Pimco’s attorney, David Boies, said, “We continue to believe that this lawsuit has no merit, and we will be responding in court in due course.”
The chairman of law firm Boies, Schiller and Flexner LLC added that Pimco “remains focused on delivering outstanding investment performance for its clients.”
Gross, a co-founder of Pimco who was known formerly as the bond king for his success managing fixed-income portfolios, abruptly left the firm in September 2014. His departure followed mounting tensions among executives over the direction of the firm’s business, The Wall Street Journal has reported.
Immediately following his departure from Pimco, Gross joined Denver-based Janus Capital Group Inc. and currently manages a small bond fund at the firm.
Gross’s suit, filed in October, seeks at least $200 million in damages from the firm and alleges former colleagues drove him out to further their own careers and take some of his bonus. A spokesman for Gross has said he plans to donate any proceeds of the suit to charity.
The Tuesday filing reiterates that Gross was forced out of the company “following repeated instances of intolerable working conditions” and says the company’s actions cost him compensation “and the tarnishing of his stellar lifelong reputation.”
Pimco in November objected to each of Gross’s claims. The $1.43 trillion money manager is based in Newport-Beach Calif., and is a unit of German insurer Allianz SE, which was also named in Gross’s lawsuit. The company has until March 7 to respond and a hearing is scheduled for March 14.
