St. James Entertainment LLC v. Crofts

837 F. Supp. 2d 1283, 2011 WL 3489992, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87697
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedAugust 8, 2011
DocketCivil Action No. 1:09-CV-1975-RWS
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 837 F. Supp. 2d 1283 (St. James Entertainment LLC v. Crofts) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
St. James Entertainment LLC v. Crofts, 837 F. Supp. 2d 1283, 2011 WL 3489992, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87697 (N.D. Ga. 2011).

Opinion

ORDER

RICHARD W. STORY, District Judge.

This case comes before the Court on Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment [65], Defendant’s Request for Oral Argument [78], and Plaintiffs Motion for Partial Summary Judgment [63], After considering the record, the Court enters the following Order.

Background

At the center of this dispute is the soft-rock hit of 1972, “Summer Breeze” by Seals & Crofts. On November 30, 2001, the singing duo, made up individually by Jimmy Seals (“Seals”) and Defendant Dash Crofts (“Defendant” or “Crofts”), executed an agreement (“the Agreement”) with Jack Hale (“Hale”), doing business as Hale House Productions, and Plaintiff St. James Entertainment LLC (“Plaintiff’ or “St. James”). (Dkt. No. [63-3], Ex. 1, at 2; Dkt. No. [65-2] at ¶ 1). The purpose of the Agreement was to create SCHR Productions, LLC (“SCHR” or “the Company”) and to produce re-recordings of several Seals & Crofts hit songs for a new album, TRACES (“the Album”). (Dkt. No. [65-2] at ¶¶ 3-4; Dkt. No. [74-6] at ¶¶ 3-4).

Under the Agreement, SCHR’s business affairs were to be run exclusively by the Board of Managers, which initially consisted of, inter alias, Hale, Seals, and Crofts. (Dkt. No. [63-3], Ex. 1, at ¶ 6). It stipulated that only St. James and Hale “shall have the authority to bind the Company with respect to any contracts or documents reasonably necessary for the promotion, manufacturing or distribution of the Album.” 1 (Id.). In turn, Seals and Crofts were obligated to “complete production and delivery to the Company at least [45] minutes of master recordings ... within [10] weeks from the date of the first recording session.” (Id. at ¶ 10). However, failure to perform any of Seals and Crofts’ [1286]*1286material obligations “shall not be deemed a breach of [the] Agreement unless [St. James] gives [Crofts] written notice of such failure to perform and such failure is not corrected within [30] days from and after receipt of such notice.” (Id. at ¶ 19).

The Agreement also provided that

[e]aeh of the [members to the Agreement] shall be entitled to pursue other investments, business opportunities or musical pursuits (including but not limited to production of other music-related projects) free and clear of any interest, claim or entitlement of the Company and any other Member. No Member shall have any duty, contractual, fiduciary or otherwise, arising out of th[e] ... Agreement to offer any other Member an opportunity to invest in, or otherwise participate in any such investment, business opportunity or musical pursuit.

(Id. at ¶ 38). Furthermore, “[a] Manager shall have no liability to the Company or the Members for any act or omission, unless such act or omission is the direct result of fraud or willful misconduct of the Manager where the Manager did not act in good faith.” (Id. at ¶ 44). Finally, each Member of the LLC agreed to “do all such other acts and things as may be required by law or as may be required to carry out the intent and purposes of the Agreement.” (Id. at ¶ 45).

Pursuant to the Agreement, Seals, Crofts, and Hale re-recorded several songs for the Album in late 2001 and early 2002. (Dkt. No. [76] at 7). Defendant says the recordings were delivered and subsequently edited by the Company to produce the final cut of the Album, which was released in May 2004 and contained 41 minutes and 44 seconds of musical recordings. (Dkt. No. [65-2] at ¶¶ 21-22, 24-25; Dkt. No. [76] at 7).

In 2008, John Lappen (“Lappen”), who held himself out as an agent for San Juan Records (“San Juan”), contacted the managing member of the Company, John Bultman (“Bultman”), in regard to San Juan’s interest in using the Album’s version of “Summer Breeze.” (Dkt. No. [76] at 9). Bultman emailed Crofts to notify him about Lappen’s proposals. (Id. at 10).

Crofts then initiated contact with Lap-pen. (Id. at 13). On December 27, 2008, Crofts sent the following email (“the Email”):

Dear [Lappen],
I’m so sorry that I haven’t returned any of your calls.... First, let me say, that John Bultman and his company are the LAST people to contact about anything musical! They know absolutely NOTHING about music, contractual offers, concerts, recording albums, Etc. They have been strickly (sic) an investment company and are into building warehouses, etc.
Our deal with them was to finance the CD “Traces” which does have “Summer Breeze” and all the other hits, but they have been recorded from a different approach (sort of our own personal rendition).
I’m sure the record company that you mentioned would be interested in rerecording the original “Summer Breeze” instead of the version on “Traces”.
What really disappoints me is that you contacted John Bultman who knows absolutely nothing about the music business. As you can see in John Bultman’s letter, he is the reporting manager of the company. They have NOTHING to do with all of our Gold and Platinum albums or any other recording except the CD “Traces” which they put up an advance for.
Anyway, I think [Seals] will lean away from this offer to re-record “Summer Breeze”. I already am not real enthusiastic about it either. We recently made [1287]*1287a deal with “Gap” to re-record it and it paid us $60,000 each plus it wasn’t a long period contract and we made residuals also.
The main reason I lean away from this offer, is to maintain the prestige and the value of “Summer Breeze” by not taking deals that are low in financial offers. We have a certain standard to uphold.
In any case I will call [Seals] tomorrow and discuss this offer with him. This deal would be between us and San Juan Record Group because Bultman[’s] company is only involved in the second recording of Summer Breeze and not in any other hit that we recorded.
I will call you to discuss all of the details that I just mentioned.

(Dkt. No. [63-4], Ex. 2, at 2-3). Although St. James says the Email was intended to divert San Juan away from doing business with the Company, Crofts disputes this and says that the “[E]mail was intended to screen Lappen from contacting Plaintiff so that Crofts could verify Lappen’s credentials, qualification and reputation.” (Dkt. No. [76] at 10-12). Regardless of the Email’s purpose, Crofts accidentally sent the Email to Bultman instead of Lappen. (Id. at 12).

Nevertheless, Defendant continued to communicate with Lappen after he sent the Email. (Id. at 14). Defendant and Plaintiff dispute whether Crofts ever told anyone at St. James or the Company about his discussions with Lappen. (Id. at 16). Although San Juan had made an offer to Crofts in regard to re-recording “Summer Breeze,” Defendant rejected the offer. (Id. at 17). As to the offer made to Plaintiff about using the Album’s version of “Summer Breeze,” St. James says it declined the offer because of Crofts’s alleged misconduct. (Dkt. No. [65-2] at ¶¶ 41-42; Dkt. No. [74-6] at ¶¶ 41-42).

On July 21, 2009, St.

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Bluebook (online)
837 F. Supp. 2d 1283, 2011 WL 3489992, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87697, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-james-entertainment-llc-v-crofts-gand-2011.