“The motion filed by the defendants appears to be about many issues, including Clinton’s personal issues with Boladian,” the estate’s filing read. “However, it lacks merit and should not be granted.”
The estate clarified that the 2023 settlement, signed nearly 50 years after the creation of the works in question, did not affect the central issue of the case: whether Bernie Worrell co-authored and co-owned key sound recordings from the 1960s and 1970s and is entitled to royalties from those works.
In its 2022 lawsuit, the estate sought a declaratory judgment affirming that Bernie Worrell was a co-owner of the recordings and that Clinton and his company owed royalties. Westbound Records was previously named as a defendant in the suit before the estate reached its December 2023 settlement.
The settlement agreement, which was not disclosed until late last year, has become a point of contention. Clinton and Thang Inc. allege that the estate deliberately hid the existence of the settlement, citing Judie Worrell’s “perjured testimony.” They contend that they requested information about the agreement in October 2022 but received very little until November 2023, when the estate finally provided the document.
