The catchily titled US Court Of Appeals For The Second Circuit has denied a motion launched by US independent TVT to have an earlier court decision regarding its dispute with Universal's Island Def Jam overturned.
This is a long running one. It all centred on Ja Rule. He was originally signed to the independent as part of Cash Money Click, but entered into a solo deal with Def Jam when a fellow CMC member was jailed and the project went on hold. TVT argued that when they released Ja Rule from his CMC contract the label reserved the right to release certain records involving Ja Rule, but that when they tried to do so Def Jam unleashed a campaign to prevent the album's release. In the original hearing the courts sided with independent saying the major was guilty of fraud, willful copyright infringement and wrongful interference with a contract. They awarded TVT a massive $108 million in damages. But that was later dropped to $54 million and then, last year, an appeal court overturned all the charges against IDJ, except that of breach of contract.
That left IDJ owing TVT just $176,000. Moreover, TVT had lost its case against IDJ on the fraud and infringement charges, and therefore owed the major label its legal costs for defending those allegations - which were rather a lot more than $176,000. Add to that TVT's own legal fees, which would now not be charged to IDJ, and you can see why the independent's boss Steve Gottlieb was keen to appeal the appeal.
But that appeal to the Circuit Court has now been denied, meaning they won't overturn their original appeal decision. This leaves TVT in a tricky position potentially facing huge legal bills from the major. That said, an appeal route up to the Supreme Court remains for the indie - whether Gottlieb will choose to take it remains to be seen.