A Los Angeles hedge fund said Friday that it has sued health club chain Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. to force the company to release records related to the adoption of a poison pill, as well as records related to how board members were appointed.

Liberation Investments LP, Bally’s largest shareholder with a 12.2 percent stake, has waged a campaign to oust Paul Toback, Bally’s chief executive. Liberation’s General Manager Emanuel Pearlman, a former Bally consultant, claims Toback conspired to oust Bally’s former CEO Lee Hillman and then launched an internal investigation to shift blame for the company’s financial problems to Hillman.

Bally currently is saddled with $757 million in debt and has not filed a quarterly report since early 2004, when it reported a loss of $13.8 million, down from a loss of $635.2 million in the first quarter of 2003.

The delays in filing its financial statements were prompted by a three-year audit and an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is ongoing.