A North Carolina Business Court judge will hold a hearing on February 6 to address the request for civil and criminal contempt penalties from IHG Brands, the current rightsholder to Winston Cigarettes, against the founder of the now closed Winston Cup Museum in Winston Salem.
The museum first opened in 2005 and was home to a massive collection era appropriate cars, fire suits, trophies and a wide array of memorabilia from NASCAR’s golden age.
The case has been assigned to Judge Adam Conrad, who has set the hearing for February 6, and will be held over a video streaming conference line. The complete history of their legal back-and-forth can be read here, here and here.
The short version is that ITG Brands began to pursue legal action against museum co-owner Will Spencer in 2022 for displaying and selling merchandise with the Winston branding on it. Spencer maintains that when ITG purchased Winston from RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, it only inherited cartons and what could be found within them, the cigarettes.
The argument is that ITG did not purchase the assets of Winston Sports Marketing, which closed in 2003 after the conclusion of its agreement with NASCAR.
ITG filed three lawsuits, of which two were tossed out, but Spencer eventually decided to close after a brief decision to rebrand heading into 2024. Now ITG seeks to hold Spencer in contempt for both the comments made about the company in a YouTube video made about the closure, which it says is misleading and damaging.
Defendants knowingly and voluntarily entered into the Mediated Agreement and waived their right to free expression. Est. of Barber, 161 N.C. App. at 664, 589 S.E.2d at 437.
Defendants then knowingly and voluntarily consented to the entry of the Mediated Agreement as a Court order “enforceable pursuant to the Court’s general contempt power” (ECF 40)—thus waiving whatever rights they had under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 5A-11(b) or otherwise to avoid the Court’s contempt power for violation of the Mediated Agreement.
Because Defendants voluntarily waived their defenses against the exercise of the Court’s contempt power, their arguments under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 5A-11(b) are not well taken.ITG Brands in a motion to hold Will Spencer in contempt
ITG, in its mostion to pursue contempt
Defendants, unfortunately, chose to continue their false narrative that ITG bullied them into submission—flatly violating ITG’s court ordered right not to be disparaged.
To preserve ITG’s bargained for rights, removal of the posts is not sufficient. The reputational harm that ITG tried to prevent has already been done considering that the video was viewed more than 150,000 times prior to removal. Defendants should be compelled to retract the disparagement to preserve ITG’s court-ordered right against defamation and disparagement before their contempt can be purged.ITG Brands in a motion to hold Will Spencer in contempt
ITG, in its motion to pursue contempt
Spencer has motioned to toss ITG’s motion, which has resulted in the February hearing.
Criminal contempt is defined by the state as “willful disobedience of, resistance to, or interference with a court’s lawful process, order, directive, or instruction or its execution.”
Spencer could be sentenced to up to 30 days in jail and fined up to $500 if found in criminal contempt according to North Carolina state law. For civil contempt, there is a potential for imprisonment of between 90 days to a year if the offending statements are not purged.
Spencer has argued that while he appears in the video, produced and edited by Mitchell Stapleton, who is not legal responsible for what someone else says.
In the video, Stapleton says: “Maybe you’ve seen the stuff about the lawsuits surrounding (the museum); the questionable at best United States judicial system has allowed a large company to bully this guy into closing his museum.”
The Winston Cup Museum briefly shared the video to its YouTube page but took it down when ITG motioned for contempt. ITG says it wasn’t enough to be removed. It wants Stapleton to purge the video and for Spencer to publicly disavow its contents.
Timeline
March 2022
ITG listed four conditions for settlement:
- Spencer agrees to digitize all physical photos and videos and provide ITG with an inventory of all photos and videos, and all other personal property in the museum, including Winston Cup cars
- Provide ITG access to all Winston Cup Museum assets for use in any ITG communication platforms or events, onsite, including hosting events, and off-site at NASCAR hosted facilities
- Provide ITG a first right of refusal to purchase all assets of the Winston Cup Museum, including upon the death of Will Spencer, his incapacity, divorce or any change of ownership
- Agreeing to post Winston messages/content on Will Spencer’s social media, “subject to ITG’s approval of all such messaging.”
The Spencers countered to dimiss the initial lawsuit with ITG agreeing to pay $20,000 to gain access to the museum for a private tour with no professional photography permitted.
May 2022
ITH responds by dismissing the first complain in May and filing a second complain that substituted Christy Spencer for her husband.
September 2023
A mediated agreement, proposed on September 13, would see the Spencers drop any reference to the Winston brand, including Winston Cup Museum, and develop a new name.
The museum asked fans to nominate new names before landing on the Ralph Seagraves Memorial Museum — a reference to the RJ Reynolds Tobacco marketing chief in charge of the NASCAR account from 1971 until his retirement in 1985.
The Spencers ultimately determined that a rebranding initiative would be too costly.
ITG Brands responded that selling one car would ultimately cover all the costs associated with such a rebrand and argued that Spencer continues to choose to portray ITG as a bully and that ITG is the reason the museum ultimately shuttered.
“That is objectively false,” ITG has argued. “Just one of the cars, a Dodge Daytona, is estimated to sell for more than $750,000 at auction. Considering that Defendants could sell one car to pay for all of the rebranding, financial constraints are not the issue. Defendants want to perpetuate public sympathy at the expense of ITG’s bargained for rights under the Mediated Agreement.”
December 2023
Stapleton publishes Winston Cup Museum’s Final Days: Huge NASCAR Collection Headed to Auction (A Man and His Dream).
The physical museum closed for good on December 16.
The cars and memorabilia are currently being sold at the MECUM Auto Auction in Kissimmee, Florida. Meanwhile, Spencer and Stapleton are designing a social media experience called the Win Cup Museum that will pay respect and homage to that era of NASCAR racing.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.