SHORT TAKES : Rock Group, CBS Back in Court

It’s out of the recording studios and into the docket for the rock group Boston, whose leader is the defendant in a $20-million breach-of-contract lawsuit by CBS records.

In opening arguments Tuesday, Don Engel, an attorney for band leader Tom Scholz, said the company bullied his client, illegally suspended his royalties and could not, or would not, understand Scholz’s artistic difficulties.

CBS charged that Scholz refused to produce albums “not because he couldn’t do his job, but because he wouldn’t do his job.” The $20-million lawsuit, originally filed in 1983 against the entire band, charged the band with failing to deliver the number of albums agreed to under their 1976, $5-million contract with CBS. Allegations against other band members were thrown out.

The heart of the suit is a dispute over royalties that led Boston to switch from CBS to MCA Records, which is also named in the suit. The group’s first two albums, “Boston” and “Don’t Look Back,” were platinum sellers for CBS.