California Court Overturns Quincy Jones’ Win in Michael Jackson Lawsuit
“A California appeals court on Tuesday overturned most of a 2017 jury verdict awarding Quincy Jones $9.4 million in royalties and fees from the Michael Jackson estate over the use of Jones-produced Jackson hits in the concert film ‘This Is It’ and two Cirque du Soleil shows,” reports Andrew Dalton in Insurance Journal’s News.
“The state’s 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that the jury misinterpreted a contract that was the judge’s job to interpret anyway. It took away $6.9 million that jurors had said MJJ Productions owed Jones for his work on ‘Billie Jean,’ ‘Thriller,’ and more of Jackson’s biggest hits.”
“The appeals court found that the jury wrongly granted Jones money from licensing fees, wrongly went beyond the 10% royalty rate Jones was owed for record sales, and incorrectly granted Jones money for remixes of Jackson’s master recordings.”
