Dispute Arose Over Filming Rights For Jimi Hendrix’s 1969 Performance At London’s Royal Albert Hall.
Photograph of Jimi Hendrix taken in Sweden. May 24, 1967. Wikipedia.
Although unpublished, Experience Hendrix, LLC v. The Last Experience, Case No. B268414 (2d Dist., Div. 2 May 8, 2017) (unpublished) takes us down “memory lane” to one of Jimi Hendrix’s final 1969 performances at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
Years later, after his unfortunate death, parties having filming rights to the event got embroiled in litigation. One side bid to rescind the contract with respect to the other side as well as obtain restitution of $4.3 million. The other side did bring “defensive” cross-claims. At the end of the day, plaintiff lost the rescission/restitution suit but did defeat the cross-claims. There was a fees clause in the contract between the parties, with the trial judge awarding $301,444 in fees to the defense under Civil Code section 1717.
The fee award was affirmed on appeal. Rescission is an action “on the contract” so as to satisfy fee entitlement under section 1717. Although neither side totally prevailed, the trial judge had discretion to determine the 1717 “prevailing party,” and that call was no abuse of discretion given that the defense won the primary objective—preventing rescission and multi-million restitution—despite losing on cross-claims.