Quincy Jones has seen most of his near win $10 million in Michael Jackson royalty fees moonwalk away from him after an appeals court dramatically reversed an earlier decision.
Full story below…
In what was a courtroom ‘Thriller,’ a California appeals hearing has ruled that a trial judge overseeing the legendary producer’s fight for more royalties for his work producing MJ classics didn’t adequately interpret contracts. Hence, the Jones’ $9.4 million win in 2017 has been reversed – so much so that $6.9 million will not have to be paid by the singer’s estate.
As reported, Jones – who helmed three of Jackson’s classic albums (‘Off The Wall,’ ‘Thriller,’ and ‘Bad’) – originally laid claim to $30 million for revenue made from the King Of Pop’s posthumous efforts – including remixes and masters for blockbuster movie ‘This Is It.’
And while he didn’t receive the lion-share of the sum, the jury at the time ruled that Jones was entitled to nearly $1.6 million for not being afforded the opportunity to participate in those remixes, an additional $5.3 million in joint venture profits, almost $2 million more for ‘This Is It,’ and a further $180,000 for foreign public performance revenue.
However, per THR, today’s reversal centered around whether Jones’ case should have even have been handed to a jury.
Check out this excerpt:
“The appeals court rules that the judge at the helm should have looked at extrinsic evidence about the contract to make a preliminary determination about the meaning of Jones’ producer contracts. Only when the contracts were reasonably susceptible to at least two interpretations and there was enough conflict in the evidence should the contractual interpretation be put to a jury.”
“The trial court did not perform these judicial functions; instead, it allowed the jury to act in a judicial capacity,” states the opinion.
The report goes on to unpack other means in which the appeals court felt their were holes in protocol or Jones’ base argument.