Appellate Law

CA1: Oprah wins

By S. COTUS

Tracy v. Winfrey, No. 07-1630 (unpublished).  Okay, someone sued Oprah for copyright infringement.  I don?t really know the facts, but there seems to be a claim that Oprah didn?t return some material.  The court dismissed on a 12(b)(6).  Then Tracy appealed.  Strangely, Tracy then argued in a motion that the First lacked jurisdiction and that the District Court had really dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.  The First says ?Upon our de novo review, neither copyright nor misappropriation of trade secret are apt legal theories for the facts as pled by Tracy, which, even construed in her favor, reveal that Tracy voluntarily and without reservation submitted her material to the defendants. Nor would the defendants' refusal to return her material constitute a claim of fraud.?  The First also says that was no reason to give the plaintiff leave to amend, because she was on notice of the possible defects as they were mentioned in the defendant?s motion. 

And finally, the First concludes that ?assuming without deciding that a request for enforcement of a statutory attorney's lien, pursuant to Mass. Gen. L. c.221, § 50, is properly initiated by motion filed in this court, we deny the motion filed by Tracy's counsel, as the statute requires that a judgment have entered in the client's favor and no such judgment has entered in this case.?

This seems very strange.

Full post as published by Appellate Law and Practice on June 11, 2008 (boomark / email).