After Vicky Cornell’s attorneys threatened the band with Rule 11 sanctions for filing “shameful and objectively frivolous” claims, he dropped allegations related to the “I Am The Road: A Tribute To Chris Cornell” benefit concert. .
The remaining members of Soundgarden are withdrawing lawsuits against the widow of late leader Chris Cornell regarding a charity concert organized in his memory amid threats of sanctions from his legal team.
Vicky Cornell in December 2019 sued Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, and Hunter Benedict Shepherd, along with the band’s business manager, Rit Venerus, alleging that they were trying to “force” her to give them seven unreleased sound recordings that her husband had done before his death for withholding of royalties.
Cornell died of suicide in May 2017, and his wife, who controls his estate, wanted to know who would produce the unreleased songs and how the album would be marketed. She is suing gang members for declaratory relief regarding ownership of the recordings’ copyright and the business manager for breach of fiduciary duty.
Soundgarden in May 2020 filed a counterclaim alleging, in part, that Vicky Cornell tricked him into acting at a charity concert (“I Am the Highway: A Tribute to Chris Cornell”) saying the money would go to charity, but what used for personal purposes The band also claims that they do not actually own the sound recordings, only that they have physical possession of them because the band returned to their Cornell property, including their laptop, and that they have been managing the sites for gang social media without permission and refuses to change about them
At the time of the counterclaim, Cornell attorney Martin Singer responded in a statement to Billboard, saying, “Every penny of the concert’s revenue was appropriately allocated and accounted for and his statements are not only false and defamatory, but they demonstrate the depths to which Chris’s former bandmates are willing to plunge to stain his legacy”.
The January 2019 benefit concert, which was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and featured performances by artists such as Miley Cyrus, Adam Levine and Metallica, raised over $ 1.3 million, which was donated to the Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation and the Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation. . Singer eventually delivered a motion for sanctions to Soundgarden and the gang members dropped the claims.
“When we threatened Soundgarden with the indisputable facts that their claims about Vicky Cornell and the Cornell Charitable Foundation were shameful and falsified in requesting that the court sanction them for their heinous conduct, they relented and agreed to withdraw their claims,” Singer said in a release. statement to Hollywood reporter Thursday. “We were eager for the court to hold Soundgarden and his attorneys accountable for their shameful conduct, but instead withdrew from their claims without merit as they knew they would lose the motion for Rule 11, which is used in court to punish and dissuade the parties and their attorneys from pursuing objectively frivolous lawsuits. “
A Wednesday provision allowing Soundgarden to file a first amended complaint states: “The sole purpose of filing the First Amended Claims is to dismiss the Ninth and Tenth Causes of Action and certain factual allegations related to the January 16, benefit concert 2019: ‘I am the highway: a tribute to Chris Cornell’.
The stipulation also details that Cornell’s team, which includes Florida-based litigator James Sammataro, sent a letter to Soundgarden the day after he filed his counterclaims that characterized the charity-related allegations as “shameful and objectively frivolous” and They provided financial information related to the event. . Members of the gang issued a response letter, which is not fully detailed, and on June 24, Cornell’s attorneys filed a motion for Rules 11 to be sanctioned against the gang and its legal counsel.
According to the filing, the gang still believes those claims were “well-founded,” but agreed to voluntarily reject them “for reasons communicated” to Cornell’s attorneys.
The main fight over who owns the unreleased sound recordings is ongoing.
