Five stars of the hit TV comedy series Modern Family are suing 20th Century Fox Television for illegal contracts. Key series stars Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Mitchell), Sofia Vergara (Gloria), Julie Bowen (Claire), Eric Stonestreet (Cameron), and Ty Burrell (Phil) filed a lawsuit against the studio on Tuesday in California Superior Court. The lawsuit states that their contracts violate a California law that prohibits personal service contracts from extending beyond seven years. The actors’ current contracts, that bind them to work on the hit TV series until June 2016, were signed before February 2009. The lawsuit asks for the contracts to be voided because they are illegal and prohibit actors from other professional work. The lawsuit also addresses the issue of the raise caps set by the actors’ contracts – all the actors are capped at either four or five per cent per season and have to make unpaid public appearances. Modern Family airs on ABC and production on the fourth season is scheduled to begin this week. The show is a critical and financial success, having won the Emmy for Best Comedy Show two years in a row and averaging 13 million viewers per episode. ~Stacy Raivich