In a long-running dispute between the Estate of James Joyce (James Joyce being the celebrated author of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake) and Stanford University Consulting Professor Carol Shloss, the Estate finally agreed to pay Professor Schloss $240,000 in attorney’s fees she incurred in a successful copyright action against the estate.
The dispute arose when the estate allegedly pressured the publisher of Ms. Schloss’s book, Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake (2003), to excise a substantial amount of source material that the estate claimed was protected by the estate’s copyright. (Ms. Shloss tried to put a different spin on James Joyce’s observations about his daughter Lucia in her book, arguing he did not see her as mentally deranged but having an attractive adolescent appeal.) Ms. Shloss commenced a declaratory relief action asking for a declaration that she had a right to publish the excised material, beating back the estate’s motion to dismiss the suit. In 2007, a settlement was reached between the parties by which Ms. Shloss was allowed to publish the excised material on the Internet and in print in the United States. However, the issue of attorney’s fees was not covered in that settlement.
Ms. Shloss, who was represented by Stanford Law School’s Fair Use Project (spearheaded by executive director Anthony Falzone) and two private law firms, moved to recoup more than $400,000 in fees from the estate. The district judge ordered the estate to pay about $326,000 in fees, a determination appealed to the Ninth Circuit. Before the appeal was decided, Professor Shloss and the estate reached a settlement by which the estate agreed to pay $240,000 to Ms. Shloss. Under the settlement, Schloss’s lawyers will split the fees and Shloss will retain a portion for a research fund.
For more on this story, see the September 28, 2009 post on Business Wire and Cynthia Haven’s article on the September 28, 2009 Stanford Record post.
To hear James Joyce reading from Finnegan’s Wake, click here.