TLC’s The Little Couple lost a chunk of their legal battle against their producer last month.
A California federal judge rejected their fraud and conversion claims against LMNO.
The two also won’t be able to rescind intellectual property rights in their case.
Jen Arnold, 43, and Bill Klein, 45, are the stars of The Little Couple, a reality show on TLC.
The series follows the lives of the pair, who both have skeletal dysplasia, as they work and raise their adoptive children Will, 10, and Zoe, 8.
Jen works at John Hopkin’s All Children’s hospital as a neonatologist, a form of pediatrics, and Bill is an entrepreneur.
The couple are currently quarantining with their kids in their $2million home amid the coronavirus pandemic.
They first embarked on their legal journey in 2017 when they intervened in the battle between their producer, LMNO, and Discovery Communications over rights to The Little Couple amid an accounting scandal.
The legal battle reportedly cost a whopping $7million.
After two long years, LMNO and Discovery arrived at a settlement agreement.
The couple continued to pursue contingent compensation from LMNO after they got word of other tampered accounting documents and inflated expenses.
To push fraud allegations to a judge, the couple needed to demonstrate that they were doing more than alleging non-payment under their contract.
The couple claimed that they suffered emotional distress and paid out-of-pocket costs as a result of the investigation.
U.S. District Court Judge John Kronstadt ruled that the pair haven’t demonstrated enough beyond tortifying a contract breach claim to have their fraud claim heard.
“Plaintiffs’ fraud claim is premised on the defendants’ alleged misrepresentations made in connection with the profit participation statements, which were provided to Plaintiffs as part of defendants’ contractual obligations,” the judge said.
“Although Plaintiffs allege that Defendants ‘created fictional financial books to deceive Plaintiffs… Plaintiffs have not offered any evidence that they viewed, accessed or were given these fictional financial books as part of the alleged fraudulent scheme.”
“Plaintiffs’ claim that they suffered out-of-pocket expenses investigating Defendants’ alleged fraud does not align this case with Century of Progress because any out-of-pocket expenses incurred by Plaintiffs do not constitute harm beyond the alleged contract breach.”
Later in the hearing, Judge Kronstadt ruled that Jen and Bill failed to show whether they had been fraudulently induced into their contract, therefore their intellectual property rights claim was not a triable issue.
The family reportedly enjoy a $3.5million net worth, thanks to their combined earnings of television revenue and their pursuits outside of the show.
The pair reportedly make up to $40,000 per episode.
They are some of TLC’s highest-paid reality stars.
The show, debuting in 2009, has been on the air for 11 years.
Fans are speculating whether there will be a Season 15 of The Little Couple.
According to The List, TLC has yet to renew The Little Couple for a new season.
Show fanatics, however, pointed out that Season 14 debuted in August of last year, therefore it could be right to assume that Season 15 will debut in August 2020.
TLC hasn’t released any information that would suggest the show is canceled.
