Zomba Recording, LLC v. Williams
New York Supreme Court
15 Misc. 3d 1118A, 839 N.Y.S.2d 438, 2007 NY Slip Op 50752U (2007)
- Written by Liz Nakamura, JD
Facts
Anthony Williams (defendant), a recording artist, entered into an exclusive recording contract, a type of personal service contract, with Zomba Recording, LLC (Zomba) (plaintiff), a music-production company. Zomba negotiated the contract in New York, and the contract contained a choice-of-law provision favoring New York law. Williams, a California resident, wrote, recorded, arranged, and produced most of his music from his home studio in California. Zomba, a New York corporation, advertised, promoted, marketed, manufactured, distributed, and sold Williams’s music from Zomba’s New York City base. Williams subsequently entered into a competing recording contract with another recording company in violation of Williams’s contract with Zomba. Zomba sued to enforce the contract and sought partial summary judgment declaring that the contract was governed by New York law. Williams countered, arguing that the contract should be governed by California law, under which personal service contracts expire after seven years. It was disputed whether Zomba’s contract with Williams was executed more than seven years before Zomba filed its action.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Cahn, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
