Beanie Babies billionaire Ty Warner presses on with Santa Barbara museum appeal

Beanie Babies billionaire Ty Warner’s appellate battle against the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is headed back to the courtroom, after four months of court-run settlement talks ended in June without a deal.

Warner sued the museum last year over the removal of his name from its marine science center, but U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner dismissed the case in January, finding he had waited too long to sue. Warner appealed that decision in February.

After Warner appealed, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered the case into mediation for confidential settlement calls every two weeks since late February. But the case was released from its mediation program on June 16, court records show.

With the talks over, the appeals court set a new schedule for the case to proceed, records show. Warner must file his opening arguments by August 10, and the museum must respond by September 9.

The dispute centers on the Sea Center, a marine science facility the museum operates on Stearns Wharf. Warner had alleged the museum violated a naming agreement tied to a $1.5 million donation he made in the early 2000s to help complete the center's reconstruction.

The facility carried his name for years before the museum removed it in 2014, after Warner pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion.

Klausner had ruled that Warner's own complaint acknowledged that the museum removed his name from the building in 2014, meaning that too much time had passed before he sued in 2025. The judge granted the museum's motion to dismiss and closed the case.

Court records do not state why the settlement talks ended without a resolution.

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