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THE author of the book behind the "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" movie lost an appeals court decision in a royalties dispute with Walt Disney Co, the second-largest United States media company.
A California appeals court said last Friday that a trial judge erred in letting a jury interpret whether author Gary Wolf was entitled to part of the gross receipts of Disney units that sold Roger Rabbit merchandise. The appellate panel also said the judge made a mistake in awarding Wolf US$216,803 in unpaid royalties based on gross receipts from Disney subsidiaries.
Wolf contended that the "purchaser" who he sold the Roger Rabbit rights to in 1983 included both the Disney parent company and Disney's units. Disney argued that Wolf was entitled to only a share of the Roger Rabbit gross receipts received by the parent company, not to a share of the units' revenue as well, Bloomberg News said.
"The trial court erred in permitting the jury to decide the meaning of the term ''purchaser' in the controlling contract," the appeals court in Los Angeles said. "The jury's interpretation of that term was wrong." Wolf created Roger Rabbit and other Toontown characters in his 1981 book "Who Censored Roger Rabbit?" The film, based on the novel, won four Academy Awards and was the top-grossing US movie in 1988 with US$150 million in revenue. Wolf sued Disney in 2001 for underreported Roger Rabbit merchandise sales.
Wolf won a partial victory in a 2005 jury trial and was awarded US$395,000 in damages, plus US$157,000 in pre-judgment interest and US$116,000 for legal costs.
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