Buchwald v. Paramount Pictures, Corp.

Art Buchwald (plaintiff) and Paramount Pictures, Corp. (Paramount) (defendant) were parties to a contract by which Buchwald transferred rights to a story he wrote entitled King for a Day (the work) to Paramount. Under the terms of the agreement, Buchwald would be compensated only if Paramount produced a feature-length motion picture based upon the work. Buchwald’s work was about a rich, educated, arrogant, and despotic African potentate who travels to America for a state visit and eventually marries an American woman. Paramount later produced the film Coming to America, in which Eddie Murphy played a pampered but kind African prince who convinces his father to let him visit America to sow his royal oats before his prearranged marriage, but the prince in fact intends to go to America to choose his own bride. Both comedic stories involved the young prince finding himself without the trappings of money and power, ending up in an urban American ghetto, abandoning his royal attitude, and falling in love. In addition, in both stories, the prince uses a mop to foil an attempted robbery. Buchwald sued Paramount for breach of contract, alleging that Coming to America was based upon his work. It was undisputed that the Paramount executives involved in developing and producing Coming to America, including the film’s director John Landis, knew about Buchwald’s work. The agreement did not define the phrase “based upon,” and there was no consensus as to its specific meaning among the entertainment-industry experts who testified at trial.