John Schnatter. Photo: Kathy Hitchins/Shutterstock.

Attorneys in a multifaceted battle for control of Papa John's are set to square off in a Wilmington courtroom Thursday afternoon, as company founder and former CEO John Schnatter tries to maintain a books-and-records case seeking records related to his ouster from the pizza chain.

However, those efforts could be complicated by Schnatter's decision in August to lodge a separate derivative suit in the Delaware Court of Chancery accusing the Papa John's directors of breaching their duties to shareholders in the wake of Schnatter's exit as company chairman, which followed reports that he had used a racial slur during a company training session in May.

Papa John's team from Richards, Layton & Finger last week said the two lawsuits allege the same underlying wrongdoing, and cast the July books-and-records case as a broad and misguided attempt at retaliation against the company. Instead, they argued, the embattled former executive should be forced to obtain board materials through discovery in the derivative litigation.

“Under Delaware law, the filing of a plenary suit destroys the purpose of seeking documents to investigate mismanagement,” Richards Layton director Blake Rohrbacher wrote Sept. 11 in a motion to dismiss.

Schnatter, who is still a director of the company, meanwhile has signaled that he is preparing for a fight. He has hired high-powered trial lawyer Patricia Glaser to represent him in both cases, and told the company back in July that he planned to fight his removal.

Glaser, a partner and litigation chair with Glaser Weil Fink Howard Avchen & Shapiro in Los Angeles, recently represented Harvey Weinstein in negotiations with The Weinstein Co., after the studio terminated the disgraced movie producer amid scores of sexual misconduct allegations.

In a court filing last week, Schnatter's attorneys said Papa John's was “lacking meritorious defenses” in the books-and-records case, and hit the company for a “contrived motion to dismiss based on mischaracterizations of a separate and distinct derivative action.”

In Delaware, they argued, directors are allowed “virtually unfettered” access to corporate documents, and the company faced a heavy burden for proving that Schnatter was not entitled to books and records.

Schnatter's team also differentiated the two suits, saying that the books-and-records case sought information leading up to a July 15 board meeting, where directors accepted a special committee's recommendation that the company cancel two contracts related to Schnatter's employment. The five-count derivative action, on the other hand, alleged corporate wrongdoing that supposedly occurred after Schnatter's initial demand for documents on July 25, the attorneys said.

“With its motion, the company has, again, demonstrated that there is no degree of obstructionism too low for it to engage in with regard to Mr. Schnatter,” Brett M. McCartney, director of the Bayard PA law firm in Wilmington, wrote.

“The carefully crafted plenary action Mr. Schnatter filed does not justify dismissal of his books-and-records action where plaintiff seeks documents necessary to inform himself as a director,” McCartney said in the filing.

Schnatter filed the books-and-records suit July 26, after he said Papa John's had failed to produce documents relevant to his demand.

On Aug. 30, Schnatter filed his derivative case under seal, accusing the rest of the Papa John's directors of breaching their duty of loyalty to investors. The 30-page complaint, made public on Sept. 5, specifically targets current CEO Steve Ritchie, whom Schnatter accused of lying in order to keep his own job with the company. And it included vague allegations of “sexual harassment or other misconduct” by members of Ritchie's senior leadership team.

Both cases have been assigned to Chancery Court Chancellor Andre G. Bouchard.

In an emailed statement, Papa John's said Schnatter's allegations were “entirely without merit” and vowed to defend the “baseless” claims in court.

Schnatter, who owns a 30 percent stake in Papa John's, resigned as CEO last December in the wake of controversial comments he made regarding a widely publicized dispute over players in the National Football League refusing to stand for the national anthem.

“John Schnatter will do anything to distract attention from the harm caused by his inappropriate words,” the company said on Sept. 7. “He continues to make reckless allegations in his attempt to regain control and serve his own interests.”

Schnatter stepped down as chairman of the Papa John's board in July, after Forbes published an article on its website claiming that he had used a racial slur during a diversity media training exercise. He has apologized and admitted to making the remark, though he said it was taken out of context.