Voronwe the Faithful – attorney, forum member and resident advisor on the Tolkien vs. New Line lawsuit reports:
“As I predicted, New Line has filed a new demurrer to the First Amended Complaint, challenging the revamped Fraud cause of action, along with a Motion to Strike punitive damages. No hearing date yet, but I’m sure that it will be soon.”
Not up to date on the demurrers and complaints? You can find Voronwe’s previous update on the latest Tolkien Family move here and/or check out the great article Clearing up Misconceptions Regarding the Tolkien vs. New Line Lawsuit
he wrote for us in June.
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Thanks again to Voronwe_the_Faithful for posting another update on the Tolkien vs. New Line Lawsuit on our message boards: The plaintiffs filed a First Amended Complaint last Monday (which I believe was the last day for them to do so). They have dropped the fiduciary duty cause of action (as expected), but they have asserted new allegations to support the fraud cause of action. They added more specific claims as to how they contend that New Line misrepresented the amount of expenses that it had in order to avoid paying the royalties due. And they somewhat clarified their contention as to how they relied on these misrepresentations to their detriment. Undoubtedly New Line will again file a demurrer to the fraud cause of action. I would say it is about a 50/50 chance that the judge will sustain it this time. Meanwhile, the likelihood of a settlement continues to slip away.
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A few weeks back, Stephen Malton of Prodem Demolition contacted TORn to inform us he was in the process of demolishing ‘Woodridings,’ a bungalow owned by J.R.R. Tolkien and his wife Edith. His company is planning on selling pieces of this historic location to Tolkien fans. During the demolition, Mr. Malton found three postcards, with one addressed to J.R.R. Tolkien himself from 1968. Obviously an amazing find! We were waiting to hear more about his discovery, but it looks like the news has hit internationally! Thanks to all the Ringers who sent in the links to the story. For the complete details please click on one of the link, and stay tuned to TORn for news on the auction and sale of items from ‘Woodridings.’ [Read More with Pics]
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The L.A. Times weighed in today on the Tolkien vs. New Line lawsuit both in the article: Tolkien’s children fight for ‘Lord of the Rings’ gold and in the “Opinion L.A.” blog. Both the article and blog entry explore the nuances of infamous Hollywood “fuzzy” accounting and play off of each other with respect to how much, and for how long, the heirs of a copyright owner should benefit from their forebear’s rights. Definitely worth a read. Thanks to diedye for the tip.
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Message board member Voronwe the Faithful has come through for us once again. He’s the first to report on the results of hearing on New Line’s Demurrer and Motion to Strike, held on June 24.
“Well, it looks like my take on the demurrer that New Line filed in the case filed against it by the Tolkien family and publisher was pretty darn accurate. The court sustained the demurrer with leave to amend within 20 days. The court explicitly held that the allegations in the Complaint support nothing more than a breach of contract cause of action. Assuming that the plaintiffs are unable to satisfactorily amend the complaint to assert new allegations that support the fraud and/or breach of fiduciary duty causes of action (a virtual impossibility), those causes of action are out, and New Line is protected from the possibility of an award of punitive damages.”
If you missed it, be sure to read the article Voronwe shared with us on Clearing up Misconceptions Regarding the Tolkien vs. New Line Lawsuit. And, as always, if you have opinions or concerns to share on the topic, be sure and check out the discussion underway on our message boards.
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Thanks to Board Member Elven for sending along this ‘News in Brief’ from the TimesOnline.co.uk:
In our report of the litigation between the Tolkien family and New Line Cinema, producers of The Lord of the Rings (May 25), we did not make it clear that Christopher Tolkien is suing as a trustee of the Tolkien Trust, a registered charity, and the JRR Tolkien 1967 Discretionary Settlement. It was another member of the family who referred to the action as “one last crusade”, not Mr Tolkien, and the hearing on June 6 was to fix a date for the eventual trial, not actually to halt Hollywood plans to film The Hobbit. We apologise to the trustees and Mr Tolkien for these errors.
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