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<b>Counsel Concerns:</b> Severability Used In Malpractice Suit Over California Talent Agency Act

By ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |
February 26, 2009

In January 2008, the California Supreme Court decided that the doctrine of severability of contracts could be applied to the state's Talent Agencies Act (TAA), Labor Code Sec. 1700 et seq. Under the supreme court's ruling, a personal manager's activities as an unlicensed talent agent may be severed from the manager's legal activities, the latter still being commissionable from the artist by the manager. Marathon Entertainment Inc. v. Blasi, 42 Cal.4th 974 (Cal. 2008).

According to the supreme court: “[T]he full voiding of the parties' contract is available, but not mandatory; likewise, severance is available, but not mandatory.” The state high court added: “If the central purpose of the contract is tainted with illegality, then the contract as a whole cannot be enforced. If the illegality is collateral to the main purpose of the contract, and the illegal provision can be extirpated from the contract by means of severance or restriction, then such severance and restriction are appropriate.”

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