MCA Target of Suit Over Joint-Venture Contract
MCA Inc. said Monday it does not yet have any comment on a $30-million lawsuit filed against the Universal City-based entertainment giant by Curb Music Co., a Nashville recording company headed by Mike Curb, former lieutenant governor of California.
The suit, filed last week in Nashville against MCA Records Inc., alleges that MCA “has repeatedly violated” its contract covering a joint-venture music label, Curb/MCA, “to the financial detriment of Curb Music.”
The venture, formed in 1983, distributes only two artists, country-Western stars Lyle Lovett and Wynonna Judd.
Larry Kenswil, MCA’s senior vice president for business and legal affairs, declined comment because the company has not yet seen the complaint.
Curb’s action follows a lawsuit filed by MCA against Curb Music on Feb. 19 in Superior Court in Los Angeles.
In that case, MCA asked the court to clarify the contractual details of the joint-venture label, Kenswil said.
Curb contends that MCA’s suit is meant “to force Curb to exclusively license to the venture” certain master recordings by the country artists The Judds “which are not a part of the original agreement.”
MCA is a unit of Japan’s Matsushita Electronic Industrial Co. Ltd.
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