Welles v. Turner Entertainment Co.

503 F.3d 728 (2007)

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Welles v. Turner Entertainment Co.

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
503 F.3d 728 (2007)

SH

Facts

In 1939, RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. (RKO) executed an agreement (the production agreement) with Mercury Productions, Inc. for the services of Orson Welles to produce, direct, and write a screenplay for two motion pictures. Under Section 13 of the Production Agreement, RKO owned all of the results and proceeds of Welles’s work, except as to any original screenplay used as the basis of either motion picture: RKO acquired the motion-picture and television rights only, and Mercury reserved the publication, radio, dramatic, and other rights. Orson wrote an original screenplay, which was used for the basis of Citizen Kane. Later, Beatrice Welles (plaintiff), daughter and sole successor-in-interest to both Orson and Mercury, filed suit against Turner Entertainment Co. (Turner) (defendant), as successor-in-interest to RKO, seeking a declaratory judgment that she owned the home-video rights to Citizen Kane. The district court granted summary judgment for Turner. Beatrice appealed.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Gould, J.)

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