The Barry White Family Trust U/A/D: December 19 v. Cooley

Background

The plaintiffs assert copyright-infringement claims against Joe Cooley and Rodney David Oliver, also known as Rodney-O and doing business as Not Intrested Publishing. The dispute concerns, among other songs, “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More, Babe,” “Everlasting Bass,” and “Like That.”

Necole Key, identified as Oliver’s music rights manager, moved to intervene as a self-represented party. No party opposed her motion. The court noted uncertainty about whether Key’s work for Oliver was separate from Lady Key Management, an incorporated business entity. The court also stated that Key could not perform work that properly belongs to a lawyer because she is not authorized to practice law.

Key’s Motion to Intervene

The court denied Key’s request to intervene both as of right and permissively. Intervention as of right was unavailable because Oliver adequately represented Key’s interests. Key’s economic interest arose from her commission-based compensation and depended on Oliver’s earnings, giving her the same ultimate objective as Oliver. Her interest in avoiding reputational harm was also aligned with Oliver’s interest in prevailing. Because that alignment created a presumption of adequate representation, Key had to rebut it, but her filings instead repeatedly described her interests as fully aligned with Oliver’s.

The court also denied permissive intervention. It found that Oliver could raise any relevant arguments at the proper time, while many of Key’s grievances involved separate factual or legal issues, accusations against non-parties, or accusations against attorneys that were not supported by the materials she submitted. The court concluded that Key had not shown that her participation as a party would aid the litigation.

Fox Rothschild’s Motion to Withdraw

Fox Rothschild LLP, counsel for the defendants, moved to withdraw after stating that Key’s attempted intervention and accusations contributed to a breakdown in the attorney-client relationship. The court granted the motion after directing that the opinion be served on Key, Oliver, and Cooley. Oliver and Cooley had filed notices stating that they would represent themselves, although the court noted that they could still obtain new counsel. Any new counsel was directed to file a notice of appearance by April 18.

Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss

The defendants had moved to dismiss the amended complaint based on lack of personal jurisdiction. Oliver later stated that he consented to the court’s personal jurisdiction for this matter. The opinion states that Cooley’s reply remained due April 18; it does not state that the motion to dismiss was resolved by this order.

Oliver’s Summary-Judgment Motion

Oliver moved for summary judgment, which is a request for judgment without a trial when there is no genuine dispute over important facts. The court understood his motion to assert that the plaintiffs did not own “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More, Babe”; that “Like That” did not sample that song; that “Like That” instead sampled “Everlasting Bass”; and that Oliver owned the copyright in “Everlasting Bass.”

The court observed that Oliver’s motion did not address the central premise of the complaint—that “Everlasting Bass” infringes “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More, Babe.” Because the parties had not yet had an opportunity to conduct discovery, the court found that this was not an appropriate stage for summary judgment. It therefore did not schedule briefing on Oliver’s motion. The court denied the motion without prejudice to Oliver renewing it later in the litigation.

Disposition

The court denied Key’s March 5 motion to intervene, granted Fox Rothschild’s March 21 motion to withdraw, and denied Oliver’s March 26 motion for summary judgment without prejudice to a renewed motion at a later stage. Judge Denise Cote did not resolve the defendants’ personal-jurisdiction motion in this opinion.