[ql06] CONTRACT: Pooh slugfest, YEAR 12
- From: "Ken Campbell -- LAW'06" <2kc16@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <ql06@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 23:07:00 -0400
[Didn't know Pooh was still in contentious contractual territory]
'Pooh' Lawsuit Against Disney Faces New Delays
By BRUCE ORWALL
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Monday, October 13, 2003
A long-running legal slugfest over "Winnie the Pooh" royalties may face
further delays after a company that is suing Walt Disney Co. dropped the
latest of at least nine attorneys that have represented it in the 12
years since the case was filed in 1991.
Disney has for years been fighting a lawsuit brought by Stephen
Slesinger Inc., a small family company that has long controlled some
North American merchandising rights for "Pooh" characters. The Slesinger
company claims that Disney shortchanged its royalties since the 1983
renewal of an agreement originally struck in the early 1960s, and says
that Disney owes it hundreds of millions of dollars.
Little was known of the case until Slesinger, based in Tampa, Fla.,
hired prominent entertainment industry attorney Bert Fields, who is well
known for other prominent legal battles with Disney. But Mr. Fields and
his firm resigned from the case earlier this year, for reasons that
remain unknown. Slesinger later retained the Jones Day law firm in Los
Angeles. But Thursday, Jones Day notified Los Angeles County Superior
Court that the Slesinger company has concluded that it can't afford the
firm, and is in the process of lining up new counsel.
Dan Petrocelli, an attorney representing Disney, said Slesinger's legal
situation has become "dysfunctional" and called the latest move a delay
tactic intended to dodge a Disney motion seeking dismissal of the case.
That motion alleges that, in the early 1990s, the family used an
unlicensed private investigator who went on Disney property to take
thousands of documents from offices and trash bins.
A spokesman for Slesinger, meanwhile, lamented the mounting costs of the
case, saying that Disney "has decided to make this case as expensive for
us as possible." He added that the family's annual legal tab now exceeds
the royalties it receives from Disney each year. Disney, based in
Burbank, Calif., has in the past said that the Slesinger company
receives about $1 million a month in royalties.
Adding to the potential that the case will be delayed even further is
the fact that, this week, the case was reassigned within the Los Angeles
Superior Court, with a new judge specializing in complex civil
litigation taking over from the judge who had long presided over the
matter.
Write to Bruce Orwall at bruce.orwall@xxxxxxx
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