A Houston choose sided with Megan Thee Stallion on Wednesday in an early skirmish in her authorized struggle with file label 1501 Licensed Leisure, refusing to grant the corporate a fast victory and ordering the case to as a substitute be determined by a jury.
Megan has lengthy been at odds with the label over a file deal she calls “unconscionable,” however the present battle was filed earlier this yr over claims that 1501 was unfairly refusing to depend her 2021 One thing for Thee Hotties as an “album” to maintain her locked into the deal for an additional launch.
In September, 1501 requested a choose to rapidly resolve that dispute himself — arguing Megan’s contract had a transparent definition of “album” and that Thee Hotties clearly didn’t meet it. Megan’s legal professionals fought again, saying there have been key disputes that have to be determined a jury and that the rapper have to be “allowed her day in courtroom.”
On Wednesday, Choose Robert Schaffer sided with Megan in that dispute, denying 1501’s movement and permitting the “album” query to proceed to a jury trial. The ruling got here with no written rationalization, merely saying Schaffer was “of the opinion that the movement ought to be and hereby is denied in its entirety.” A trial date has not but been set.
A rep for Megan declined to touch upon the ruling. Steven Zager, lead lawyer for 1501, advised Billboard he disagreed with the choose’s resolution however burdened that the ruling had not resolved any points in both facet’s favor.
The star rapper (actual identify Megan Pete) has been preventing with 1501 for greater than two years, claiming the corporate duped a younger artist into signing an “unconscionable” file deal in 2018 that was well-below business requirements. She says that when she signed a brand new administration cope with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation in 2019, she acquired “actual legal professionals” who helped her see that the deal was “loopy.”
She filed the present case in February, claiming 1501 had wrongly labeled Thee Hotties as one thing lower than an album — a key distinction, since she owes a set variety of albums beneath the file deal. 1501 rapidly countersued, arguing that Thee Hotties contained simply 29 minutes of authentic materials and was clearly not an “album.”
The 2 sides then escalated the case final summer season. Megan filed a brand new criticism in search of greater than $1 million in damages over claims that 1501 had “systematically failed” to pay sufficient royalties. 1501 then fired again with new accusations of its personal, claiming it’s truly Megan who owes “thousands and thousands of {dollars}.”
With these different points nonetheless pending, 1501 requested the choose in September for a so-called abstract judgment on the core dispute — that means a fast ruling about whether or not Thee Hotties counted as an album. The corporate argued there was nothing ambiguous in regards to the contract, and that the choose himself might resolve the problem with out additional proceedings.
“There isn’t any quantity of discovery that may change the reply to that query,” 1501’s legal professionals wrote on the time. “The courtroom can examine the recording to the contractual necessities for an album and decide that ‘One thing for Thee Hotties’ will not be an album as a matter of regulation.”
Megan’s legal professionals sharply disagreed. In a response this month, they cited supposed disputes over primary details, like whether or not or not 1501 gave approval previous to the discharge of Thee Hotties, and stated these disagreements would have to be sorted out by a jury, not a choose.
“Pete ought to be allowed her day in courtroom to current proof and testimony to the jury demonstrating that she has carried out all that was required of her within the supply and launch of her albums,” her legal professionals wrote.