Bill Nye The Science Guy Cleared to Take Disney to Court for $28M

Bill Nye the Science Guy has been given the greenlight to go toe-to-toe in court with the House of the Mouse.

On Thursday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dalila Lyons granted Nye the ability to take The Walt Disney Company to court with limited claims, after the beloved television scientist has been embroiled in a lawsuit with the media giant since 2017.

The 64-year-old is pursuing punitive damages to the tune of $28 million dollars, accusing Disney of withholding profits stemming from his 1990s syndicated series, "Bill Nye, The Science Guy."

According to the original lawsuit, Disney television subsidiary Buena Vista entered into an agreement with Bill Nye granting him 16.5% of the net profits from sales and distribution of the popular 100-episode series. In April 2008, Disney sent a payment to Nye totaling $585,123.

But three months later, the company claimed an 'accounting error" and asked for a $496,111 remittance. Nye requested an audit, which eventually found he was owed royalty payments in the amount of $9 million.

Disney attempted to scale down the case's standing to "an accounting spectacle," placing limitations on Nye's claims, which his legal team responded to in a statement.

"While we are disappointed with the Court's ruling yesterday and the flawed legal reasoning upon which it relied, we welcome the opportunity to litigate the remainder of our clients' case at trial and finally recover the damages Mr. Nye and his fellow producers are entitled to, including an award of punitive damages. More importantly, it is our hope that this case, which Disney has fought so hard to stall, will finally shine some light upon the improper accounting practices that Disney utilizes to unjustly deprive profit participants, like our clients, of their fair share of revenues from the programming that they work so hard to create."

The limited trial is now scheduled for May 2020.