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Limitations Period Bars Claim to Monies From Photos of Robert Johnson
The Supreme Court of Mississippi decided that the estate of the sister of blues legend Robert Johnson waited too long to file suit to obtain royalties and fees from two rare photos of Johnson. Anderson v. LaVere, 2012-CA-00601. Johnson died in 1938. In 1974, his half-sister Carrie Thompson entered into an agency agreement for music producer Steven LaVere to exploit Johnson content. LaVere then procured a deal with CBS Records, today owned by Sony Music. When Thompson died in 1983, she left her estate to her half-sister Annye Anderson and grandson Robert Harris. In 1990, CBS released The Complete Recordings of Robert Johnson, which included the two photos in the packaging. In 1991, a state judge appointed an administrator for Robert Johnson's estate and, in 1998, the Mississippi Chancery Court ruled that Johnson's son Claud was sole heir of the blues artist's estate.
Anderson and Harris sued Johnson, LaVere and Sony Music in 2000 over monies earned from the photos. The causes of action included fraud, unjust enrichment and breach of fiduciary duty. The case heated up in 2011 when Sony sought to use the two Robert Johnson photos on The Centennial Collection.
Mississippi Code. Ann. '15-1-49 provided a three-year statute of limitations for Anderson and Harris's claims. Anderson and Harris argued that their claims didn't accrue until the state court decided that Claud Johnson was the sole heir of his father's estate. But the trial court granted summary judgment for the defendants.
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