By Sharmil McKee on February 19, 2010
Will and Jada Smith have responded aggressively to legal threats that they fraudulently induced someone to invest in their film project.
In 2007, Jada wrote a film, the “Human Contract”; Will produced it. They convinced David Grasso to invest in the film. He did with $5 million dollars. The film went straight to DVD. In January [...]
Posted in Litigation, Understanding Contracts | Tagged celebrity, Litigation
By Sharmil McKee on February 4, 2010
Jill Scott is facing a possible multi-million dollar judgment. Her record label, Hidden Beach, is suing her for breach of contract. They claim that she promised to produce 6 albums, but she has only produced 3 so far. They are seeking to recover the money they would have earned had she produced the final 3 albums. [...]
Posted in Litigation, Understanding Contracts | Tagged breach of contract, celebrity, Litigation
By Sharmil McKee on January 19, 2010
A week ago, Conan O’Brian lost his job, as the host of the Tonight Show. Actually, it appears the Conan quit when the network (NBC) decided to more the show from 11:30 pm to 12:05 am. http://tinyurl.com/yz5xt7u The network’s decision was made after examining Jay Leno’s rating of his 10 pm show. The poor ratings [...]
Posted in Understanding Contracts | Tagged breach of contract, celebrity
By Sharmil McKee on December 27, 2009
Nicholas Cage is being sued for fraud.
Red Curb Investments alleges that Nicholas Cage failed to repay a $5 million loan. A loan is a contract where Party A agrees to lend money to Party B. In exchange, Party B agrees to repay the money on a certain day. When Party B fails to repay [...]
Posted in Understanding Contracts | Tagged breach of contract, celebrity, Litigation
By Sharmil McKee on August 29, 2009
Is a contract written in blood enforceable in court? No.
It is hard to imagine that in 2009, people would ever resort to using blood to write contracts. However, in 2009, the courts address two different contracts written in blood. The first was a $170,000 loan between two friends. The loan agreement was written in blood [...]
Posted in Understanding Contracts | Tagged breach of contract, Litigation
By Sharmil McKee on June 23, 2009
Judgment creditors lost a battle today. The Pennsylvania Superior Court held that a judgment creditor may not receive a debtors interest’s in a Limited Liability Company, unless the LLC’s operating agreement allows it. A judgment creditor is a person who won a court order declaring that the defendant owes that person a certain sum of [...]
Posted in Understanding Contracts | Tagged collecting judgment
By Sharmil McKee on April 20, 2009
I received the following question by email:
I am corporate counsel for my mid-sized company. We need to hire an attorney to handle some outside matters. Should I prepare an engagement agreement or should I expect the firm to use its own?
This was my response:
I provide the engagement agreement for most of my corporate clients, even [...]
Posted in Asked and Answered, Understanding Contracts | Tagged how to hire an attorney
By Sharmil McKee on March 10, 2009
The Pennsylvania Court of Appeals recently issued an opinion that reinforces the basic foundation of Negotiation 101—know your bargaining position. Medical Protective Company insured Dr. Paul G. Marcincin for medical malpractice. Unfortunately, Dr. Marcincin committed malpractice when he failed to diagnose his patient with skin cancer. A jury awarded the patient $2.5 million. Medical Protective [...]
Posted in Understanding Contracts | Tagged negotiating
By Sharmil McKee on March 8, 2009
What can you do?
You are between a rock and a hard place.
Your vendor promised to repair the machine. The machine is central to your business; without it you can’t operate or make any money. You can’t afford to replace the machine, but you can’t afford to stay in business with a broken machine. How can [...]
Posted in Understanding Contracts | Tagged breach of contract
By Sharmil McKee on February 18, 2009
Can a buyer use ‘force majeure’ as an excuse to break or breach a contract, such our economic recession or depression?
Generally, no. Under Pennsylvania law, to use a force majeure clause as an excuse for non-performance, the event alleged as an excuse must have been beyond the party’s control and not due to any fault [...]
Posted in Asked and Answered, Understanding Contracts | Tagged breach of contract
