Pallant v. Sinatra

7 F.R.D. 293, 65 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 158, 1945 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1486
District Court, S.D. New York·Decided February 19, 1945·Published·Cited by 15 cases

Opinion

LEIBELL, District Judge.

The defendants, ten in number, move to strike plaintiff’s amended complaint on various grounds, which may be summarized as follows: (1) That the amended complaint was served without prior application to the Court'for permission to make service thereof and that at the time of its service plaintiff’s time to serve an amended complaint as of course under Rule 15(a), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. following section 723c, had expired; (2) that the copies of the amended complaint served on the attorneys for the various defendants- were not signed by an attorney of record for the plaintiff; (3) that the amended complaint was served for the avowed purpose of converting an equity action into an action at law and thereby obtaining a jury trial, although another Judge of this Court had ruled and entered orders last month, striking the plaintiff’s demand for a jury trial as to the third and fourth causes of action of the original complaint, and directing the Calendar Commissioner [295]*295of the Court to remove the action from the jury calendar to the non-jury calendar.

This suit was commenced October 18th by the filing of the original complaint with the Clerk of this Court. The gravamen of the first cause of action of both the original and the amended complaint is the alleged infringement of a statutory copyright of plaintiff’s musical composition and the misappropriation thereof, while the second cause of action is based on the infringement of plaintiff’s common law copyright of part of the lyric and its misappropriation. A third cause of action for breach of a fiduciary relationship was pleaded in the original complaint, but was omitted from the amended complaint. The fourth cause of action of the original complaint is for breach of contract and it is repeated as the third cause of action of the amended complaint. The original complaint contained four main subdivisions, each one entitled a separate cause of action, but not all of the alleged causes of action were asserted against all of the defendants. Further, some of the causes of action, in separate paragraphs thereof, actually pleaded a number of separate and distinct claims of copyright infringement against various defendants.

The first cause of action is pleaded “against all the defendants.” It alleges in paragraphs 13th to 17th inclusive that prior to November 26, 1938, the plaintiff had written a musical composition entitled “Clouds” which consisted of several complete numbers of lyrical words set to music, each of which in itself was a complete and separate musical composition and copyrightable as such; that one such musical number was entitled “Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are” composed by the plaintiff; that on November 26, 1938, he duly registered the musical composition “Clouds” including its separate component musical composition “Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are” under the Copyright Law and received a certificate of registration for his copyrighted musical composition.

Paragraphs 18th, 19th and 20th of the first cause of action of the original complaint are repeated by reference in the second cause of action and are important enough to quote in full—

“Eighteenth: That during the period commencing on or about October 1, 1940 and ending on or about March 31, 1941, the defendant, Tommy Dorsey, a well-known musical entrepreneur and performer of so-called popular music by his band of instrumentalists and vocalists, among whom was included the defendant, Frank Sinatra, conducted a so-called ‘New Song Contest’ on a so-called ‘Fame and Fortune Program’, which was broadcast every Thursday night over the N.B.C. Blue Network, at 8:30 P.M., Eastern Standard Time; that the defendant, Frank Sinatra, in addition to being a leading vocal artist in said band, was either a joint venturer with the defendant, Tommy Dorsey, in the financial and business operations of said band, or was employed by the defendant, Tommy Dorsey, and had a financial interest in the success and operations of the said band and in its undertakings, and actively aided, participated and cooperated with the defendant, Tommy Dorsey, in the initiation and operation of said song contest and was familiar with the purpose, terms and conditions of said contest; that the announced purpose of said contest was to encourage creative effort on the part of people to write songs and amateur song writers were invited to submit their unpublished manuscripts to the said Tommy Dorsey, with the assurance that the title, lyrics and music in said manuscripts would be treated in confidence, would be judged impartially, and that each week a winner would be selected whose composition would be performed by the said Tommy Dorsey and his assisting artists, and whose composition would be published under a standard form of contract for the benefit of the contestants.

“Nineteenth: That pursuant to said invitation the plaintiff, an amateur composer and a qualified contestant, submitted several manuscript compositions to the defendant, Tommy Dorsey, including the musical composition entitled ‘Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are,’ consisting of a Verse and Chorus, copy of which is annexed hereto, marked Exhibit I; that only said portion of said Exhibit I as is [296]*296marked and follows the word ‘Chorus’ is copyrighted under the statutes, as aforesaid, and is the subject matter of this first cause of action; that the part of said Exhibit I, marked ‘Verse’, preceding the ‘Chorus’, is owned by plaintiff under a common law copyright and is the subject matter of the second cause of action hereinafter alleged.

“Twentieth: Upon information and belief, that the defendant, Tommy Dorsey, with the aid and connivance of the Defendant, Frank Sinatra, and others did not conduct the said contest fairly and impartially and solely for the purpose of utilizing the musical compositions submitted by the contestants for the awarding of prizes and causing the said compositions to be published under a standard form of contract for the benefit of the contestants, but, on the contrary, and in violation of the confidence reposed in him and his assisting artists, including the defendant, Frank Sinatra, used the said contest as a means and device of acquiring a large amount of valuable unpublished musical material which the said defendants appropriated to the use and benefit of themselves and the other defendants.”

The 21st paragraph charges that subsequent to the said contest Sinatra and Dorsey conspired with Cahn, Styne, Robbins Music Corporation, T. B. Harms Co. and RKO Radio Pictures Corporation and “procured the said defendants to utilize the plaintiff’s unpublished manuscript ‘Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are’ for the purpose of making a copy thereof” and published and performed the same for the benefit of said defendants and others. The allegations of the 21st paragraph in effect charge the seven defendants named therein jointly with having used and published the plaintiff’s unpublished manuscript, illegally acquired by Dorsey and Sinatra in the manner described in paragraphs 18th, 19th and 20th. Thus, the complaint down to the 21st paragraph sets forth a separate claim against the seven defendants named in the 21st paragraph.

Paragraph 22nd sets forth a separate claim and charges that certain of the defendants, to wit, Cahn, Styne, Robbins Music Corporation and T. B. Harms Co.

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Pallant v. Sinatra, 7 F.R.D. 293, 65 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 158, 1945 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1486 (S.D.N.Y. 1945).

7 F.R.D. 293 (Pallant v. Sinatra) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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