On August 29th, 2019, King County Superior Court in Seattle, WA ruled that Chris Stoikos and Coolbox LLC would not be held in contempt for failing to comply with a default judgement and order issued August 25th, 2018. Despite having paid a fee award and having produced some corporate documents under the default order to LLC member and plaintiff Shaun Kjellman, Stoikos later challenged the Seattle court’s jurisdiction in a move to avoid a contempt motion filed by Kjellman.
In early 2015, Chris Stoikos launched a crowdfund on Indiegogo.com to raise money for the Coolbox Toolbox (now the Coolbox Cooler) which failed for years to be delivered. Also in 2015, Chris Stoikos launched The Dollar Beard Club (now The Beard Club) Kjellman had engineered and designed the original Coolbox concept prototype hardware and had been named as a co-inventor but was later removed from the intellectual property history when Stoikos filed non-provisional patent applications whereby naming himself as sole inventor. Kjellman filed a lawsuit in 2018 which sought the production of Coolbox LLC company records. Stoikos ignored this suit which led to a default judgment.
In response to the most recent contempt motion, Stoikos claimed that he had no formal business dealings in WA but documents submitted to the court showed his claim to be false. Additionally, counsel for Stoikos argued that the suit originally filed by Kjellman failed to comply with Delaware LLC statutes. They argued that Seattle courts did not have subject matter jurisdiction over Coolbox LLC and that actions brought against a Delaware LLC must be done in Delaware. The court held that Delaware courts did not have exclusive jurisdiction over actions involving the statute in question.
The court ruled that it did have both personal jurisdiction over Chris Stoikos and subject matter jurisdiction over Coolbox LLC but ultimately ruled that the original default judgement order was impermissibly vague for reasons that it failed to define the requirements for compliance. The original default judgement was not in fact vacated but was not enforced for the aforementioned reason.
Both Stoikos and Kjellman were seeking monetary awards, Stoikos for a return of the fee award previously paid, and Kjellman for fees incurred in bringing action against Stoikos and Coolbox LLC. The court awarded neither. The court is also no longer requiring Stoikos nor Coolbox LLC to produce any more corporate documents relating to the operation of Coolbox LLC.
Stoikos ultimately transferred all interest in Coolbox LLC to former Sharktank Shark Kevin Harrington, which left Kjellman and other LLC members with zero interest in any Coolbox related ventures.
See also
Court Orders Chris Stoikos, Coolbox LLC to Appear in Court or Risk Contempt