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TVT vs. Def Jam Provides Tips On Evidence Use

By Stan Soocher

On March 21, a Manhattan federal jury ruled that the Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJ) committed breach of contract, copyright infringement and fraud over TVT Records plans to release an album by hip-hop producer Irv Gotti featuring Ja Rule and his group Cash Murda Click (CMC). (TVT alleged that IDJ wrongfully prevented Gotti from delivering a CMC album for a November 2002 release date. The district judge bifurcated the trial into separate liability and damages phases.) In addition, the judge denied TVT's motion to dismiss IDJ's counterclaims for tortious interference with contractual relations. TVT Records v. The Island Def Jam Music Group, 02-6644. The district court's decision'and related March 4 and March 7 rulings issued just before the trial began ' offered valuable tips on what evidence may be introduced in litigation between record companies over the services of an artist. Among the evidentiary rulings:

A letter delivered by IDJ to TVT on the eve of trial giving consent for Gotti and Ja Rule to deliver a CMC album to TVT was precluded from trial. Otherwise, the court noted it 'would effectively remove from the jury a threshold issue it is here being charged to determine: whether the parties' interactions culminating in the Side Letter Agreement [between IDJ and TVT for the services of Gotti and Ja Rule] formed a binding contract in the first place and, if so, whether that contract was breached by IDJ in [a repudiation letter from] August 2002.'

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