A New York judge has dismissed nine of Etana’s fourteen claims in the breach of contract and copyright infringement lawsuit she filed against her former label VP Records, but he has given the Jamaican Reggae singer two weeks to amend her complaint.
The decision, which was handed down on Friday, December 30, was laid out in a 26-page Opinion and Court Order, “While joyous and buoyant rhythms underlie much of [Etana’s] music, this case sounds in much harsher tones,” US District Court Judge Gregory H. Woods wrote in his decision.
The case concerns four contracts—a recording agreement with VP, under which Etana released four albums between the years 2007 and 2014, an additional recording agreement with VP, which she signed in 2014 after delivering all four albums, a songwriter agreement with Greensleeves Publishing Ltd (GPL), which was signed in mid-2008, and a co-publishing and administration agreement with GPL, which was signed in 2014. VP acquired Greensleeves for US$6.2 million in 2008, according to Billboard.
VP Records and Green Sleeves Publishing Limited (GPL) have been accused by Shauna McKenzie-Morris, also known as Etana, and her partly-owned company Free Mind Music LLC, of breaching four contracts. The accusations state that VP and GPL did not pay her royalties and other monies that were allegedly due to her.
The I Am Not Afraid singer, in an amended complaint filed in April 2022, had also made ten non-contract claims against VP and GPL for copyright infringement (Claim No. 5), fraud (6), unlawful appropriation and unjust enrichment (7), breach of fiduciary duty (8), conversion (9), tortious interference (10), and failure to provide accounting (11). The record company was sued by the two-time Grammy-nominated singer and her company, seeking a declaratory judgment (12), the imposition of a constructive trust upon VP (13), and a permanent injunction (14).
VP and GPL did not move to dismiss the four contract claims, but they, on May 24, 2022, sought to strike the ten non-contract claims from the matter.
According to Judge Woods, nine of the non-contract claims submitted by both parties during the hearing last Friday (December 30, 2022) were dismissed as they were deemed to be implausible. The judge didn’t dismiss the allegations of fraud against VP and GPL. However, he did dismiss the claim of copyright infringement due to the complaint not clearly identifying McKenzie-Morris’s registered works with the Copyright Office.
The Copyright Act preempted the claims of unjust enrichment and conversion, according to the judge’s ruling. Additionally, the tortious interference claim was dismissed because Etana and her company were unable to plead the required elements of the claim, ruled Woods.
Due to the failure to plead the existence of a fiduciary duty, the causes of action regarding accounting and the imposition of a collective trust were dismissed.
The Court has decided against granting Plaintiffs a declaratory judgment or permanent injunction. It’s important to note that both declaratory judgments and permanent injunctions are forms of relief rather than independent causes of action.
