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In a Monday court filing, plaintiff Dwayne Walker said U.S.
Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis in Manhattan should take himself
off the case "because a reasonable person would question his
impartiality."
Ellis' chambers declined to comment.
Walker accused the judge of issuing inconsistent rulings that
favored Jay Z, the rap star and music entrepreneur whose given
name is Shawn Carter Walker, and other defendants including
Roc-A-Fella Records and its parent Universal Music Group Inc, a
unit of Vivendi SA.
Ellis was also accused of basing one ruling on a private call
from a lawyer for the corporate defendants "without even
reaching out to the plaintiff" for his views.
"On several occasions the court has ignored or reversed its own
reasoning" in ways that benefitted the defendants, Walker's
lawyer, Gregory Berry, said in a court filing. "Combined with
the ex-parte call, this pattern would strongly suggest to the
average person that the court is biased in favor of the
defendants."
Lawyers for the defendants did not immediately respond to
requests for comment. Berry did not immediately respond to a
similar request.
In his July 2012 lawsuit, Walker claimed to have in 1995 created
artwork depicting a vinyl record that became the basis for
Roc-A-Fella's logo, which also includes a superimposed "R."
Walker is seeking to hold the defendants liable for copyright
infringement dating to 1996.
The case is Walker v Carter et al, U.S. District Court, Southern
District of New York, No. 12-05384.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Cynthia
Osterman)
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