Experience Hendrix, L.L.C. v. Noel Redding Estate Ltd

Background

In December 2021, lawyers for Noel Redding Estate Ltd. and Mitch Mitchell Estate Ltd. sent a claim letter to Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited. The estates asserted ownership rights under English law in a catalog of musical compositions and sound recordings created by Jimi Hendrix. In January 2022, Sony Music Entertainment, Experience Hendrix LLC, and Authentic Hendrix LLC filed this action in the Southern District of New York. They sought a declaration that general liability releases signed by Redding and Mitchell in the early 1970s barred the estates’ claims.

The defendants moved to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. The court previously allowed limited discovery concerning whether the defendants had possession, custody, or control of documents relevant to jurisdiction. Meanwhile, the estates’ related action against Sony UK proceeded in the High Court of Justice in England and Wales. An English appellate judge affirmed that the English courts had jurisdiction and allowed the estates’ claims to proceed on the merits.

Reason for the Stay

The court considered whether the U.S. and English cases were parallel proceedings—meaning that substantially the same parties were litigating substantially the same issues at the same time. It found that they were. The English case concerned the estates’ claimed ownership rights under English copyright law despite the 1970s releases; this U.S. case concerned whether those same releases entitled Sony Music Entertainment to a declaration preventing the estates from pursuing their claims in England.

The court also found that the English litigation began first, that England was an adequate forum, and that the dispute was closely connected to England because it involved estate matters there, release documents located there, and English copyright and intellectual-property law. Because the court was staying rather than dismissing the U.S. action, it concluded that the plaintiffs would not be prejudiced.

Disposition

The court held that the circumstances, considered as a whole, favored deferring to the English proceedings under principles of international comity. It stated that dismissal was unwarranted at that time and stayed this action pending resolution of the defendants’ action in England. The parties must provide a joint status update within 30 days after a final judgment on the merits in the English case. The clerk was directed to terminate the motion pending at Dkt. 43. The opinion did not decide the underlying ownership or release dispute.