Garbage Case To Stay In California

Garbage’s lawsuit seeking freedom from Universal Music got a boost as a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge denied the label’s bid to move the trial to New York on Tuesday (April 10). Judge Marvin M. Lager ruled that singer Shirley Manson’s agreement with Radioactive Records in New York signed with her previous band, Angelfish, isn’t sufficient to invoke a “mandatory New York forum selection clause.”

Judge Lager wrote, “The plaintiffs [Garbage] have the heavy burden of showing that enforcement [of a New York forum selection clause] would be unreasonable under the circumstances. It would be unreasonable to have the band and its members involved in simultaneous litigation in two separate forums against related adversaries where significant factual issues overlap. The result urged by Universal would offend concepts of judicial economy. California’s strong public policy of encouraging settlement before trial would be undermined as piecemeal settlement appears remote.”

Garbage filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on January 19 of this year, claiming that Universal was using “wrongful, monopolistic, and strong-arm tactics” to stop the band from going to another record label.

The band is invoking a clause, the “keyman clause,” that stated in its contract that they’re free of obligation to Almo or its parent company if Almo’s chairman Jerry Moss ceased to run the company. The complaint alleges that Universal acquired Almo and that Moss retired. When the band invoked the aforementioned clause, Universal told the band he hadn’t left.

– Darren Davis, New York

source: music.yahoo.com