OTC has  previously questioned whether shareholder challenges to multibillion-dollar megamergers ought to be litigated simultaneously in more than one jurisdiction. The same question now rears its hydra head in an altogether less-pressing area of the law. On June 8, Chicago solo Larry Drury filed a federal district court class action demanding restitution for purchasers of the purportedly non-fiction bestseller “Three Cups of Tea .” This is Drury’s second foray into the arguably unnecessary practice area of memoir fraud litigation—he previously filed a suit against literary embellisher James Frey and the publisher of “A Million Little Pieces.” 

But Drury is actually not the first plaintiffs lawyer to file a suit claiming damages for folks who bought “Three Cups of Tea.” The first class action was filed last month in federal district court in Montana, where “Three Cups of Tea” co-author (and subject) Greg Mortenson lives. And the lawyer leading the Montana case, Alexander Blewett, told OTC that he doesn’t want to work with Drury’s Illinois team and hopes the suits aren’t consolidated. 

Here’s why these two suits claim “Three Cups of Tea” readers were scammed. The book, which is billed as the co-written autobiography of mountain climber-turned -education-advocate Greg Mortenson, has sold more than 4 million copies since its 2006 publication. It describes how, after a failed ascent of South Asia’s K2, Mortenson stumbled into a Pakistani village where he was nursed back to health by kindly locals. He vowed to return to construct a school, and, as the book recounts, was so imbued with the mission that he dedicated his life to building schools in remote Afghan and Pakistani villages. He founded a charity to support his cause, the Central Asia Institute; and wrote a second book, “Stones into Schools,” to describe his continuing adventures in the region, including his supposed kidnapping by members of the Taliban. 

Fast forward to April 2011. 60 Minutes broadcast a story questioning some of Mortenson’s claims – according to the show, he didn’t spend substantial time in the Pakistani village until a year after he said he did; he wasn’t kidnapped by the Taliban; and, most significantly, many of his schools sit unused. “60 Minutes” also asserted that Mortenson had used Central Asia Institute funds to finance personal travel, including promotional appearances for his books. Mortenson admitted “clear discrepancies” and copped to “literary compression,” and he and his charity, the Central Asia Institute, are now under investigation by the Montana Attorney General’s office. (Mortenson lives in Bozeman.) 

The Montana class action filed after the “60 Minutes” revelations demands that Mortenson and the Central Asia Institute return both the books’ purchase price and donations class members made to the charity. The allegations of misuse of the charity’s money seem serious, but the claims that book buyers were cheated reminded us of Winona Ryder’s immortal line from the movie Heathers: “What’s your damage?” 

Nevertheless, “former teacher and avid reader” Deborah Netter was aggrieved enough by the alleged exaggerations and misstatements in “Three Cups of Tea” to serve as the name plaintiff in the second class action brought on behalf of the book’s readers. The Illinois federal court complaint, which also names “Three Cups” co-author David Oliver Relin and the book’s publisher, Penguin, seeks class certification for all consumers who bought the book, in any form, on or after January 1, 2006. 

Plaintiffs lawyer Drury told OTC it’s too early to tell if his case will be consolidated with the Montana suit. We, of course, wondered if the cases could possibly be lucrative enough to support the efforts of two teams of plaintiffs lawyers. In the Frey case Drury previously handled, the class agreed to settle for attorneys’ fees and costs of approximately $800,000, plus $1,500 for the class representatives. Drury requested just under $173,000 in fees and costs. Frey’s readers, meanwhile, weren’t exactly rabid for justice. Court documents filed two weeks before the end of the claims period said only 1,345 readers had requested a refund; total projected requests weren’t expected to top 6,000, of the millions who bought “A Million Little Pieces.” 

Mortenson is currently recoverying from recent open heart surgery, his representative said Thursday. His lawyer in the Montana case, John Kauffman of Kasting, Kauffman & Mersen, was unavailable for comment. A representative for Viking, the Penguin imprint that published Mortenson’s books, declined comment on the Illinois class action but said that when Mortenson recovers from his surgery, the publisher will address any changes that need to be made in the books.  

(Reporting by Erin Geiger Smith)