Counsel Concerns

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated sanctions issued against an attorney representing the estate of Tarzan illustrator Burne Hogarth, which had sued over rights in Hogarth's works following the release of The Walt Disney Co.'s animated “Tarzan” movie. The named defendant was Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. (ERB), the owner of the copyrights of the Tarzan author and creator. But after the plaintiffs lost in both the district and appeals courts, the district court issued sanctions against the Hogarth plaintiffs and their attorney David Smallman. The court concluded in part that Smallman had actually found documents before filing suit that undermined the plaintiffs' claims. The parties then reached a settlement under which plaintiffs' and counsel would pay $80,000 to ERB ' $50,000 of that over the document-withholding issue ' whatever decision the district court reached on the plaintiffs' motion to vacate sanctions. Smallman then filed an affidavit with the court stating that he had in fact found the disputed documents much later in the case than the court had previously been held to believe.