DETROIT,  (Reuters) – In a Texas-sized legal battle,  billionaire Ross Perot Jr. filed a lawsuit this week, accusing  fellow billionaire Mark Cuban of driving the Dallas Mavericks  basketball team into insolvency.

A Perot-controlled company with a five-percent stake in the  National Basketball Association team — Hillwood Investment  Properties — charged Cuban’s Dallas Basketball Ltd (DBL),  which operates the Mavericks, with breach of contract,  disregarding the rights of minority owners and breach of  fiduciary duty, according to the lawsuit filed in a Texas state  court.

“It is insolvent and/or in imminent danger of insolvency,”  Hillwood said of the NBA team in the lawsuit filed on Monday.

“DBL currently does not have revenues sufficient to pay its  operating costs, and without additional borrowings, DBL will  not be able to fund its projected operating losses or to pay  its obligations as they become due,” according to the lawsuit.

Perot’s Hillwood is seeking unspecified damages and  attorney costs, claiming Cuban’s operation of the team has hurt  the value of his investment in the Mavericks. Perot sold Cuban  control of the team in 2000.

Perot, who is worth $1.4 billion according to Forbes  magazine, also requested through Hillwood that the court  appoint a receiver to operate the NBA team and name an  independent forensic accountant to investigate its finances,  according to the lawsuit. Cuban owns about 76 percent of the  team, according to the lawsuit.

Cuban, worth $2.4 billion according to Forbes, could not be  reached to comment, but said in an email to the Dallas Morning  News that the team was not insolvent.

“Mavs fans have nothing to worry about,” he told the  newspaper. “The Mavs operations and debt are guaranteed by me.  There is no risk of insolvency. Everyone always has been and will be paid on time.” DBL has lost more than $273 million in Cuban’s nine years  of operating the team, including more than $50 million in the  fiscal year ended in June 2009, according to the Perot lawsuit.  DBL’s debt now likely tops $200 million and the team’s internal  projections show the projected interest-bearing debt balance  reaching more than $281 million by June 2013, according to the  lawsuit.

Cuban told the News he is the team’s largest debtholder and  personally guarantees the rest, and suggested Perot might be  seeking a buyout. However, Cuban added there was no chance he  would lose control of the Mavericks.

Cuban, who has turned the Mavericks into a winning team  that regularly makes the postseason, has a range of business  interests. His hot temper when arguing with referees during  Mavericks games has earned him millions of dollars in fines,  while his dancing skills landed him on the television show  “Dancing With the Stars.”

He also owns HDNet, a national high-definition television  network, and Landmark Theatres. Magnolia Pictures, the  theatrical and home entertainment distribution company that he  co-owns through the company 2929 Entertainment, released the  documentary “Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room.”

Perot is a real estate developer and co-founded computer  services company Perot Systems Corp along with his father and  former U.S. presidential candidate Ross Perot. That company was  later sold to Dell Inc.

The case is Hillwood Investment Properties III Ltd v.  Radical Mavericks Management LLC et al, Dallas County Court,  No. 10-05639.