Zyla v. Wadsworth, Division of the Thomson Corp.

360 F.3d 243, 69 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1915, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 3521, 2004 WL 345639
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedFebruary 25, 2004
Docket03-1801
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 360 F.3d 243 (Zyla v. Wadsworth, Division of the Thomson Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Zyla v. Wadsworth, Division of the Thomson Corp., 360 F.3d 243, 69 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1915, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 3521, 2004 WL 345639 (1st Cir. 2004).

Opinion

LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

This civil case arose out of a dispute over authorship of the fourth edition of a college textbook, Personal Nutrition, published in August 2000.

Gail Zyla was a visiting lecturer in nutrition at Tufts University from 1996 until 2000, when she became an independent writer. Earlier in the 1990s, she had worked with Professor Marie Boyle Stru-ble, a professor and director of the graduate program in nutrition at The College of St. Elizabeth, on the second and third editions of the textbook. Both were listed as co-authors; Struble had co-authored the first edition with someone else in 1989 and was the lead author on all three editions.

In 2001, Zyla sued Struble, her publisher (Thomson Corporation), and the division of Thomson that published the textbook (Wadsworth) over the publication of the fourth edition. 1 Zyla was unhappy that, in late 1998, Thomson had extended the authors’ original deadline for submission of materials, as well as the publication date for the fourth edition, in order to accommodate Struble’s busy schedule, instead of adopting Zyla’s proposal to give Zyla a greater share of the work and of the royalties if the deadline were missed again. Zyla withdrew from the project in 1999 and notified Thomson and Struble that they had no permission to use any of the work she had done to date for the fourth edition. Only when the book was published, she said, did she learn that her work had been used in the fourth edition without her permission and without appropriate attribution. 2 Zyla continued to receive 12.5% of the total royalties on the Fourth Edition (her residuals from earlier editions), but not the 40% she would have received had she not withdrawn as an author.

Zyla’s suit in federal court sought damages and royalties, asserting seven causes of action: (1) copyright infringement; (2) violation of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a); (3) breach of contract by Stru-ble; (4) breach of contract by Thomson; (5) a petition for a declaration voiding an agreement signed by Zyla that reduced the royalties to which she was entitled for the fourth edition to 12.5%; (6) intentional interference with advantageous relations by Struble; and (7) violation of Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 93A, §§ .2 and 11. After discovery, the district court entered summary judgment for defendants on all claims. Zyla appeals. We affirm.

I.

The facts are described in the light most favorable to Zyla, the non-moving party. *247 Feliciano de la Cruz v. El Conquistador Resort & Country Club, 218 F.3d 1, 5 (1st Cir.2000).

Personal Nutrition is an undergraduate textbook published originally by West Publishing, and later by its successor, Thomson. The first edition of the textbook was published in 1989. Struble and Eleanor Whitney were the co-authors, with Struble acting as lead author. When Whitney chose not to work on the second edition, Zyla was brought in to replace her as co-author on that edition. Although Zyla did not have the college teaching experience, academic affiliation, or doctoral degree usually preferred for textbook authors, the editor believed that she could handle the job because she was an experienced writer in the field of nutrition. The second edition was published in 1992.

On January 26, 1995, West entered into an agreement with Struble and Zyla (who are referred to jointly as “Author” in the contract) to prepare the third edition. This agreement (the “Third Edition Agreement”) stated that it was to be governed by Minnesota law. It provided for the authors to receive a combined royalty of 15 percent of net paid sales. Zyla was to receive 25 percent of this total, while Stru-ble was to receive 68.43 percent. 3 Section 2 of the agreement provided that:

If the contribution of any one or more Authors is not delivered to West on or before the Due Date or West determines that the contribution will not be so delivered ..., West may, after consultation with the Authors, terminate this Agreement with respect to the non-performing Author(s) and continue this Agreement with the remaining Author(s) alone or with one or more mutually acceptable co-authors, or terminate this Agreement.

Section 7 provided that if an author did not participate in subsequent revised editions of the book,

Author ... will be paid one-half of Author’s compensation [under the third edition] with respect to the first revised edition in which Author does not participate and one-quarter of such compensation with respect to the second revised edition in which Author does not participate.

The Third Edition Agreement also contained an assignment of copyright in Section 3, which provided that:

Author hereby assigns and transfers to West all present and future copyrights and other rights in the Work (including revised editions of the Work) and supplements thereto.

The “Work” was defined in Section 1.1 as the third edition of Personal Nutrition.

The third edition was published by West in 1996. Afterwards, Thomson succeeded to West’s rights and obligations under the Third Edition Agreement.

Between late August and early September 1997, Thomson, Struble, and Zyla signed an addendum to the Third Edition Agreement to cover the fourth edition (the “Fourth Edition Addendum”). The addendum changed the royalties allocation provision in the Third Edition Agreement to give 60% to Struble and 40% to Zyla for the fourth edition. It stated that “[s]hould the responsibilities of the Authors change during the writing of the revision, the royalties can be adjusted accordingly upon written receipt [by] the Publisher of a letter from the Authors signed by both Authors reallocating the royalties.” The addendum also set a manuscript deadline of March 1, 1998, and stated that if this deadline was not met, “the Publisher may terminate this Agreement or Addendum.”

*248 In October 1997, Walter Marshall, the editor whom Thomson assigned to work on the textbook, became concerned that Stru-ble was behind in her work and suggested that she turn over some of her work to Zyla to enable the two authors to meet the March 1 deadline. Struble declined to do so. By early 1998, it became clear that the authors would not make the deadline. Zyla had submitted revisions for two of her four assigned chapters and two of the eleven “Nutrition Action” features that she was to write, and Struble had sent a new feature entitled “The Savvy Diner” but no revisions for her seven assigned chapter's.

Thomson chose not to exercise its power under Section 2 of the Third Edition Agreement to terminate the agreement with either author. Instead, in late 1998, Marshall extended the deadline until April 1, 1999, and then until May 15, 1999.

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360 F.3d 243, 69 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1915, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 3521, 2004 WL 345639, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/zyla-v-wadsworth-division-of-the-thomson-corp-ca1-2004.