- #387
- Publié par
lemg le 30 Oct 2004, 17:50
Le groupe a, il y a quelques années, revu à la hausse le montant de leurs royalties concernant tout leur catalogue (donc depuis VH I) et auraient "oublié" de payer à DLR, la somme qui lui revient automatiquement.
David Lee Roth Sues Van Halen Over Royalties
(LAUNCH, 12/13/2002 4:00 PM)
By Matt Ashare
(12/13/02, 4 p.m. ET) -- David Lee Roth is suing his former bandmates in Van Halen and their record company, Warner Bros., for unpaid royalties.
In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday (December 11), the former frontman of the band names guitarist Edward Van Halen, drummer Alex Van Halen, and bassist Michael Anthony, and their companies Van Halen Music and Van Halen Music LLC, as well as Warner Bros., as defendants.
Roth and Diamond Dave Enterprises, Inc. claim conspiracy to convert property, breach of fiduciary duty, and accounting. Roth alleges that Van Halen signed a 1996 contract with the record label to raise the royalty rate on the band's catalog, including Roth-era recordings. He says the deal was made without his knowledge, and claims a diversion of his entitlement to 25 percent of royalties owed to him based on a prior contract he signed with the group a decade earlier.
In the lawsuit, Roth accuses his former bandmates of converting the distribution of royalties and claims "malice, fraud, and oppression." He also claims he suffered a financial loss of at least $200,000 through December 31 of 2001.
Roth is demanding a one-quarter interest in all relevant royalties, a full accounting from Van Halen and Warner Bros., and is seeking unspecified damages with proof at time of trial, as well as a prejudgment of interest based on a violated civil code; plus all legal fees, court costs, and compensation for time spent pursuing the royalties, as well as exemplary or punitive damages.
Van Halen was formed in Los Angeles by Roth, the Van Halen brothers, and Anthony, releasing its Warner debut in 1978. Roth remained the band's singer through the album 1984, released in the same year as the name. He was replaced by singer Sammy Hagar, who remained with the group until the mid-'90s. An short-lived reunion with Roth for a 1996 greatest hits set fell apart and former Extreme frontman Gary Cherone was named as the group's new singer for 1998's Van Halen 3, the band's biggest commercial flop to date. The group left Warner Bros. in 2001 and is currently without a label.
-- Darryl Morden, Los Angeles
lemgement lemg