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New York State Judge Barry Ostrager ruled that
Dylan and Levy's contract didn't entitle Levy's estate to any
proceeds from the sale of Dylan's copyrights because the
contract only granted him specific royalties from the songs.
"As we said when the case was filed, this lawsuit was a sad
attempt to profit off the recent catalog sale," Dylan's attorney
Orin Snyder of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher said. "We're glad it's now
over."
Levy's estate's attorney Aaron Richard Golub didn't immediately
respond to a request for comment.
Levy co-wrote ten songs with Dylan, seven of which were on
"Desire", including its most famous song "Hurricane". His widow
Claudia Levy sued Dylan and UMG on behalf of his estate in
January, arguing their contract entitled him to 35% of "any and
all income" earned by the compositions from several sources.
Levy argued this included proceeds from Dylan's landmark
December sale of his catalog to UMG, which The New York Times
said "may be the biggest acquisition ever of the music
publishing rights of a single songwriter." Levy had asked the
court for at least $1.75 million from the sale and $2 million in
punitive damages.
But Ostrager said that the contract was "clear and unambiguous"
in granting Dylan complete ownership of the copyrights and
limiting Levy's compensation to 35% of what were mostly
licensing royalties -- which he said UMG agreed to continue
paying -- "and in no way can be construed to include a portion
of Dylan's sale of his own copyrights."
Ostrager discounted Levy's estate's "voluminous opposition
papers" as well as the opinion of its music copyright expert Bob
Kohn, who argued the songs were works of joint authorship.
Kohn's evidence was inadmissible because the agreement was
unambiguous, and was also "unpersuasive as it distorts the plain
language in the Agreement," Ostrager said.
"Bob Kohn improperly usurps the Court's function to interpret
the Agreement by cherry-picking words and phrases and assigning
them meanings that ignore the surrounding words and are
inconsistent with the 1975 Agreement when read as a whole,"
Ostrager said.
The case is Levy v. Zimmerman, Supreme Court for the State of
New York, New York Count, No. 650402/2021.
For Levy: Aaron Richard Golub of Aaron Richard Golub PC
For Dylan and UMG: Orin Snyder of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
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