Here's the BWW article https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Seyi-Omooba-Ordered-to-Pay-Over-300000-Following-Legal-Action-Against-Curve-Leicester-For-Removal-From-THE-COLOR-PURPLE-20210330
This is the Stage article for those who can't use the link at the bottom.
"Seyi Omooba has been ordered to pay the full costs incurred by Curve and Global Artists during her unsuccessful tribunal claim against them, which could exceed £300,000.
Leicester’s Curve has welcomed the news, which followed an application by the theatre and Omooba’s former agency that she pay their costs of responding to the claim.
Curve chief executive Chris Stafford and artistic director Nikolai Foster said in a joint statement that they felt the case "lacked any merit from the outset", but they had been forced to defend themselves at a tribunal "irrespective of facts" and as part of a wider campaign initiated by Omooba’s backers Christian Concern.
The actor now faces a cost order of £259,356 for Curve’s bills and £53,839 for Global’s costs, totalling £313,195. Both sums are subject to "detailed assessment" by the tribunal, meaning a judge will inspect the details of the amounts submitted.
Omooba is supported by Christian Concern’s legal arm, the Christian Legal Centre.
Last month, Omooba lost a two-year legal battle against Curve and Global after she was dismissed from a production of The Color Purple in 2019, and later dropped by the agency. It followed the emergence of a Facebook post, written by Omooba, in which she claimed that homosexuality was not "right" and that she did not believe that people could be born gay.
She brought an employment tribunal case against both parties on grounds of religious discrimination and breach of contract, which was rejected.
According to a judgement published this week, Curve and Global have been successful in applying for their costs to be covered by Omooba.
The judgement agreed with both respondents’ arguments that Omooba’s claims had "no reasonable prospects of success".
At a hearing held on March 18, which Omooba herself did not attend, Curve’s representative Tom Coghlin QC described the litigation as a "hopeless claim" that should never have been brought to tribunal. He said Omooba and her advisers had wanted to "pursue a point of principle in a public forum".
The tribunal’s ruling said Christian Legal Centre was "deeply invested in both bringing the claim and in continuing with it", and that while there was nothing wrong in publicising cases because of their social issues, "it is however wrong to promote and use a weak case, especially when… overlooking or mis-stating the facts in the claimant’s own evidence".
"The theatre and the agency, in facing allegations of unlawful discrimination, risked their good reputations in the theatre world, and [Curve] was especially at risk when dependent on public funds. Using the case as a publicity opportunity, rather than fighting it on its merits to redress wrong, transferred Christian Concern’s public relations budget to the respondents," it said.
The tribunal concluded that the "threshold tests were met" as to the claims having no reasonable prospect of success, and that Omooba "should bear the whole cost of the respondents’ defence, subject to detailed assessment by a costs-trained judge of the amounts claimed".
When costs exceed £20,000, it is common practice for the tribunal to make an order for a detailed assessment of the bills.
Stafford and Foster’s statement said: "Unfortunately, Curve, Global Artists and the tribunal process have been used as part of a wider campaign orchestrated by Christian Concern which has resulted in significant human and financial cost, and we have had to suffer inaccurate and false reporting on this case by Seyi Omooba’s own representatives."
During the hearing it was revealed that Omooba’s legal team did not provide any evidence as to her ability to pay, as requested by Curve and Global’s representatives.
The judgement said: "The tribunal cannot assume that a party is impecunious because they have not supplied any evidence. Indeed, if that were the case, no one would provide evidence."
Omooba’s representative, Pavel Stroilov, suggested during the hearing that if she were forced to pay costs, either the Christian Legal Centre or Christian Concern would campaign for donations towards the amount.
The ruling said it believed "from the number of cases that [CLC] have supported, and the range of services offered, that there are substantial resources or access to them".
The ruling acknowledges that, unlike in civil courts, the "normal" procedure for employment tribunals is that both sides pay their own costs, and there is no automatic expectation for the losing side to pay the costs of the other, except when a claim has no reasonable prospect of success and/or when a party has acted "abusively, destructively or otherwise unreasonably".
Global Artists and Christian Concern have been contacted for comment."
https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/seyi-omooba-facing-300k-bill-following-unsuccessful-tribunal