Life Music, Inc. v. Broadcast Music, Inc.

41 F.R.D. 16, 150 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 789, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7190
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedAugust 19, 1966
DocketCiv. A. No. 106-159
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 41 F.R.D. 16 (Life Music, Inc. v. Broadcast Music, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Life Music, Inc. v. Broadcast Music, Inc., 41 F.R.D. 16, 150 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 789, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7190 (S.D.N.Y. 1966).

Opinion

OPINION

EDELSTEIN, District Judge.

This is a motion pursuant to Rule 37(b) (2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for an order dismissing this action and for “such other and further relief as to the Court may seem just and proper*,” by reason of plaintiff’s failure to comply with this court’s order dated Juy 17, 1964.1 That order sustained plaintiff’s objection to the defendants’ seventeenth interrogatory but overruled the objections to Interrogatories 1 through 16. It required that plaintiff “responsively answer each of Interrogatories 1 to 16 inclusive * * * and the subdivisions of each of said Interrogatories, separately, definitely and fully in writing under oath as provided by Rule 33 of the Rules of Civil Procedure. * * * ” The order also provided “that plaintiff may apply upon notice to extend such time [the time in which to answer] upon an affirmative showing of the need therefor.” The plaintiff did not apply for additional time and filed its answers to Interrogatories 1 through 16 on December 14, 1964. Thereafter, on January 28, 1965, defendants brought on this motion to dismiss for failure to comply with the court's order of July 17, 1964. Defendants, in effect, contended that plaintiff’s answers were unresponsive to the questions and did not comply with the court’s order. On oral argument the court granted plaintiff leave to file supplemental answers, which were filed on March 9, 1965. Defendants moved to strike the supplemental answers, or, in the alternative, to tax costs and attorneys fees incurred in their January motion on the grounds that contrary to the court’s authorization the plaintiff had filed a new integrated set of answers rather than simply supplemental answers. This court denied the motion to vacate the supplemental answers and reserved decision on the motion to tax costs and attorneys fees. After examining the transcript of the proceedings before this court on February 4, 1965, the court is persuaded that conceivably there may have been some ambiguity as to what was meant by the term “supplemental.” Defendants’ motion, therefore, to tax costs and attorneys fees in regard to the supplemental answers is denied.

On April 14, 1965, defendants, in effect, renewed their motion to dismiss the complaint for failure to comply with this court’s order of July 17, 1964, based on the supplemental answers filed on March 9, 1965.2 In addition to detailed [21]*21allegations that the plaintiff had failed to comply with the court’s order of July 17, 1964, defendants also urged that the harsh sanction of dismissal was appropriate because plaintiff’s refusal to answer was willful, deliberate, and involved a complete lack of good faith rather than any inability to comply. In particular defendants point to plaintiff’s answers to Interrogatories 3 and 5.

Interrogatory No. 2 seeks the title of compositions in which the plaintiff had any public performance rights, and Interrogatory No. 3 seeks, “with respect to each composition listed in response to Interrogatory 2, state:

“(a) (i) the name or names and address or addresses of the authors and composers of such composition, (ii) if any such name is a pseudonym, the true name of such author or composer, (iii) the date such composition was composed;
“(b) (i) the date of copyright of such composition, (ii) the form or forms of copyright of such composition [i. e. common law or statutory], (iii) if the copyright was registered in the Copyright Office, the year or years in which registered and the registration number or numbers;
“(c) (i) whether the plaintiff was the copyright proprietor of such composition on each date listed in response to Interrogatory 1 and (ii) in each case in which the plaintiff was not the copyright proprietor of such composition on any such date, the name and address of the copyright proprietor thereof on such date; * * *
“(f) in each case in which plaintiff was the copyright proprietor of such composition on each of the dates listed in response to Interrogatory No. 1; “(i) whether any person other than the plaintiff had any rights, or the right to grant to others any rights, of the kind specified below [i. e., public performance rights, rights to print, sell, arrange, and record] in such composition on any of the dates listed in response to Interrogatory 1, and, if so, in each case (A) the name and address of such person, (B) (i) the rights such persons had and (ii) whether such rights were exclusive, (C) the date or dates on which such other person obtained or retained such rights, (D) the name and address of the person from whom such rights were obtained or retained, (E) the means (whether by assignment, license, etc.) by which such other person obtained or retained such rights, (F) whether such rights were obtained or retained in writing and, if so, identify such writing. * * * ”

In answer to Interrogatory No. 2 plaintiff states that at the times specified in answer to Interrogatory No. 1 plaintiff had public performance rights in each of the 197 musical compositions which titles were referred to and listed in Exhibits 2833, 2833A and 2833B, copies of which were annexed to the answer. One of the songs listed on the exhibit was the “Super Song” (“also known as Supercalafajalistiekespialadojus”). In response to Interrogatory No. 3 plaintiff answered:

“3. (I) With respect to each of the 197 compositions listed in answer to Interrogatory No. 2, the said Exhibits 2833, 2833A and 2833B set forth the title, the author, the copyright broadcasting clearance date, which also is the approximate year of copyright, and the approximate date of composition. (The date of composition is necessarily earlier than the date of copyright.)
The plaintiff owns the copyrights in said compositions, and there has been no change in status since 1954.
Further information pertaining to these copyrights or assignments thereof are only available to the plaintiff by a prohibitively expensive search in the U. S. Copyright Office, which plaintiff is unable to undertake or to have made, * * * ” (Italics added.)

[22]*22The plaintiff’s answer thereafter details its assertion of the prohibitive cost of such a copyright office search.

The only information that could be deemed set forth in response to Interrogatory No. 3 (by reference to the relevant exhibits) regarding the “Super Song” is that the composer and author is “Don Fenton” and “Patricia Smith” and that it appeared in the B.M.I. “16 December 1949 Bull” which answer 3 explains as “the copyright broadcasting clearance date, which is also the approximate year of copyright, and the approximate date of composition. (The date of composition is necessarily earlier than the date of copyright.)”

On February 25,1965, Life Music, Inc., together with Mr. Barney Young (Life Music’s president) and Miss Gloria Parker commenced an action in this District Court against numerous defendants (including Broadcast Music, Inc.). That complaint alleges, in effect, that the plaintiffs in that action, (Life Music, Young and Miss Parker) have the exclusive rights to the copyright of the “Super” composition and that the copyright “is duly registered in the office of the Register of Copyrights under registration #E pub. 58001 following publication September 24, 1951 and under E unpub.

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Bluebook (online)
41 F.R.D. 16, 150 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 789, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7190, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/life-music-inc-v-broadcast-music-inc-nysd-1966.