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Quincy Jones’ Jackson Estate lawsuit to proceed to trial

By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 20 January 2017

An ongoing legal dispute between legendary producer Quincy Jones, Sony Music and the Michael Jackson estate – the latter via the MJJ Productions company – is set to go to trial after a judge denied a motion for summary judgement this week.

As previously reported, the producer sued Sony Music and MJJ Productions in 2013 in relation to various posthumous Jackson-based ventures that utilised music from the king of pop’s albums that Jones produced, including the ‘This Is It’ film, two Cirque du Soleil productions and some album re-releases.

Jones’ lawsuit alleged that those projects breached agreements dating from 1978 and 1985 that gave him the first option to remix or remaster the records he produced. It also accused Sony and MJJ of constructing complicated deals around some of those ventures that meant more money went to the Jackson estate to the detriment of Jones.

MJJ Productions sought to have the case dismissed via summary judgement for the second time this week. But, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the judge hearing the case said that he thought the Jackson company’s lawyer was over-simplifying the dispute.

Judge Michael L Stern concluded that there remained a number of outstanding issues that required more rigorous analysis of the available evidence, which in turn would require some proper court time.

He also added that he felt the arguments presented this time in favour of summary judgement were no different than those submitted last year, and he denied the motion that time too.

The matter is now due to properly arrive in court on 21 Feb.