SeaWorld is on the offensive against lawyers at Covington & Burling who have been pursuing a class action claiming customers were duped by false portrayals of the park's orcas being healthy and stimulated.

SeaWorld's lawyers at Norton Rose Fulbright filed a motion for sanctions in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Friday claiming that the Covington lawyers filed claims that they knew were frivolous and worked to feed discovery material to an organization that's against keeping the animals in captivity.

“This case was packaged as an effort to protect unwary consumers allegedly duped into purchasing SeaWorld tickets and merchandise based on false statements about SeaWorld's killer whales,” wrote Norton Rose's John Simpson. “Now, more than two and a half years into this lawsuit, it is SeaWorld and the Court who have been duped. Discovery unmasked the fiction: the entire case stands on a false foundation created to advance the anti-captivity agenda of the Earth Island Institute (EII), a non-party.”

SeaWorld's lawyers claim that the named plaintiffs were all recruited by EII and that none have plans to make future SeaWorld purchases. The park also claims that the plaintiffs don't have evidence of any exposure to SeaWorld's statements about orca lifespan or keeping mothers and calfs together. They also claim that Covington was preparing the case before an EII official recruited the first plaintiff in 2015. SeaWorld is seeking to force Covington to pay its legal fees in the case, which as of Sept. 30 were $1,948,176.76, according to the motion.

Covington & Burling's Christine Haskett, the lead lawyer on the case, didn't immediately respond to email and voicemail message Friday afternoon. Haskett previously wrote in court papers that SeaWorld is attempting to rely “on selective and misleading excerpts of deposition testimony … in an attempt to avoid adjudication of the core issue in this case: whether SeaWorld lied to the public about its treatment of orcas.”

Norton Rose's Simpson declined to comment when contacted by email, saying he'd let the motion speak for itself.

Orlando, Florida-based SeaWorld has faced a backlash against its whale shows since an orca drowned a trainer mid-show in Orlando in 2010 and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the park for safety violations. The park came under further scrutiny when “Blackfish,” a documentary about the whale involved in the attack, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013.

Covington filed its initial complaint in April 2015 in San Francisco Superior Court claiming that the company's website, advertisements, and even its logo misled consumers into thinking the whales thrive in captivity like they would in the wild.

But in Friday's sanctions motion, the park's lawyers claim that Covington and EII recruited “puppet plaintiffs” and, in the case of the initial plaintiff Marc Anderson, EII went so far as to send him a DVD of “Blackfish” to plant the seeds for the lawsuit.

SeaWorld's lawyers also allege that Covington has tried to designate figures from EII as “experts” in the case, in order to allow them access to attorneys-eyes-only material that surfaces in discovery.

Wrote Simpson: “These facts, combined with the patently false allegations, establish, inexorably, that this case was invented and pursued by Covington for the improper purposes of publicity, harassing SeaWorld and causing it to incur significant fees, and gaining donations and access to confidential material for EII.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story said that SeaWorld is based in San Diego. It is based in Orlando, Florida.

SeaWorld is on the offensive against lawyers at Covington & Burling who have been pursuing a class action claiming customers were duped by false portrayals of the park's orcas being healthy and stimulated.

SeaWorld's lawyers at Norton Rose Fulbright filed a motion for sanctions in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Friday claiming that the Covington lawyers filed claims that they knew were frivolous and worked to feed discovery material to an organization that's against keeping the animals in captivity.

“This case was packaged as an effort to protect unwary consumers allegedly duped into purchasing SeaWorld tickets and merchandise based on false statements about SeaWorld's killer whales,” wrote Norton Rose's John Simpson. “Now, more than two and a half years into this lawsuit, it is SeaWorld and the Court who have been duped. Discovery unmasked the fiction: the entire case stands on a false foundation created to advance the anti-captivity agenda of the Earth Island Institute (EII), a non-party.”

SeaWorld's lawyers claim that the named plaintiffs were all recruited by EII and that none have plans to make future SeaWorld purchases. The park also claims that the plaintiffs don't have evidence of any exposure to SeaWorld's statements about orca lifespan or keeping mothers and calfs together. They also claim that Covington was preparing the case before an EII official recruited the first plaintiff in 2015. SeaWorld is seeking to force Covington to pay its legal fees in the case, which as of Sept. 30 were $1,948,176.76, according to the motion.

Covington & Burling's Christine Haskett, the lead lawyer on the case, didn't immediately respond to email and voicemail message Friday afternoon. Haskett previously wrote in court papers that SeaWorld is attempting to rely “on selective and misleading excerpts of deposition testimony … in an attempt to avoid adjudication of the core issue in this case: whether SeaWorld lied to the public about its treatment of orcas.”

Norton Rose's Simpson declined to comment when contacted by email, saying he'd let the motion speak for itself.

Orlando, Florida-based SeaWorld has faced a backlash against its whale shows since an orca drowned a trainer mid-show in Orlando in 2010 and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the park for safety violations. The park came under further scrutiny when “Blackfish,” a documentary about the whale involved in the attack, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013.

Covington filed its initial complaint in April 2015 in San Francisco Superior Court claiming that the company's website, advertisements, and even its logo misled consumers into thinking the whales thrive in captivity like they would in the wild.

But in Friday's sanctions motion, the park's lawyers claim that Covington and EII recruited “puppet plaintiffs” and, in the case of the initial plaintiff Marc Anderson, EII went so far as to send him a DVD of “Blackfish” to plant the seeds for the lawsuit.

SeaWorld's lawyers also allege that Covington has tried to designate figures from EII as “experts” in the case, in order to allow them access to attorneys-eyes-only material that surfaces in discovery.

Wrote Simpson: “These facts, combined with the patently false allegations, establish, inexorably, that this case was invented and pursued by Covington for the improper purposes of publicity, harassing SeaWorld and causing it to incur significant fees, and gaining donations and access to confidential material for EII.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story said that SeaWorld is based in San Diego. It is based in Orlando, Florida.