According to court documents, the mother of “Pawn Stars” star Rick Harrison has filed a lawsuit against him in a dispute over the family’s assets and ownership of the Las Vegas firm featured on the long-running reality TV show.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Harrison’s attorneys filed a civil action on behalf of Harrison’s mother, Joanne Harrison, in a Nevada state court.
Among those named defendants are Rick Harrison, the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, and the business entities Harrison Properties and JoRich Properties.
“The charges are baseless,” Rick Harrison told the newspaper, “and I believe people are exploiting my 81-year-old mother for their gain.”
Joanne Harrison was married to the late Richard Harrison, also known as “The Old Man” on the show, for 58 years before he died, according to the breach-of-contract complaint.
It is alleged that when she was confined to the hospital in either 2000 or 2001, one of the couple’s three sons, Rick Harrison, coerced her into transferring to him her 51% ownership interest in the pawn store.
In 2009, the company was the setting for a History Channel show starring the family’s grandson Richard Corey Harrison and a family friend named Austin “Chumlee” Russell.
According to the lawsuit, Joanne Harrison purchased Richard Harrison’s 49 percent stake in the pawn shop after his death in 2018. Still, Rick Harrison has failed to provide her with complete documentation of the business’s financial transactions.
Furthermore, Joanne Harrison claims that she has been unable to obtain an accurate accounting of more than $500,000 in cash and silver that she believes her husband accumulated before his death.
The action requests specific damages, an accounting of assets, an order from the court prohibiting Rick Harrison from using monies that belong to Joanne Harrison, and “a constructive trust” over property that Joanne Harrison owns.