LOS ANGELES : $3 Million Award to Peggy Lee Upheld

A California Court of Appeal upheld a judgment Monday that will force the Walt Disney Co. to pay singer Peggy Lee $3 million for releasing a videocassette of “The Lady and the Tramp” without her permission.

Lee supplied the voice of four characters, sang three songs and co-composed the film score for the animated movie. She charged that her contract with Disney did not give the company the right to sell videocassettes of the movie without her permission.

Lee sued Disney 13 months after the release of the videocassette in November, 1988, asking for $50 million in damages. A Superior Court jury sided with her in 1991.

She was paid $3,500 and earned another $1,000 that she shared with her writing partner for the use of songs they collaborated on for the movie. Though videocassettes did not exist when Lee signed her contract with Disney, Lee had retained the rights to phonograph recordings and transcriptions of the film. A Superior Court judge ruled that cassettes come under the category of transcriptions.