Court Slashes Def Jam $54 Million Award To TVT

Wednesday, June 15, 2005
By: Dondiego

A New York appellate court has set aside an award of $54 million in damages to TVT in the indie label's long-running suit against Universal's Island Def Jam Music Group and its former executive Lyor Cohen, now chairman-CEO at Warner Music Group(Def Jam). The court let stand an award of $126,000 on a breach of contract claim.

Ja Rule, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, started his career with TVT in 1993 and moved to Island Def Jam five years later. The litigation resulted after TVT Records, a New York company, alleged that Island Def Jam's parent company blocked the completion of an album that Ja Rule and two friends tried to make for TVT in spring 2001. A federal jury found that IDJ and Cohen had tried to sabotage the release of a TVT album by the rap act Cash Money Click.

In May 2003, a jury awarded roughly $24 million in compensatory damages and $108 million in punitive damages to TVT Records in what was one of the largest awards in the history of the music industry.

The jury had assessed the damages against Island Def Jam, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, the world's largest record company, which is owned by French media giant Vivendi Universal.

Matthew Dontzin, a lawyer for Island Def Jam and its then-chief executive officer, Lyor Cohen, called the appeals ruling a "decisive victory, completely vindicating Mr. Cohen." Cohen, who is now president of Warner Music Group, was "delighted" by the court's decision, Dontzin said in a telephone conversation from Europe.

TVT lawyer Peter Haviland said in a statement Tuesday that TVT will appeal the reduction in the damages.

"We were forced to bring this action in part because Mr. Cohen and Def Jam denied the existence of a contract critical to our business," he said. "This court has affirmed that we did have a contract and that the defendants broke it. This is not over, and we look forward to the next round."

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