DArezzo v. Appel

Background

Angela D’Are​​zzo brought a federal copyright action against Catherine Appel and Overtime Dance Foundation, Inc. D’Are​​zzo alleged that she was the true author of The Salty Mountain, a book about her extended family’s history in and immigration from Italy, and that Appel falsely registered the book as her own work. She sought a declaration that she was the sole author or, alternatively, that she and Appel were co-authors. She also asserted claims for copyright infringement, breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, and a constructive trust.

The defendants moved to dismiss. The motion was referred to Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron for a Report and Recommendation. On May 31, 2023, Judge Aaron recommended granting the motion as to the sole-authorship and copyright-infringement claims and denying it as to the remaining claims. No party objected.

Court’s Analysis

Because there were no objections, Judge Engelmayer reviewed the Report and Recommendation for clear error—a review asking whether an obvious mistake appears on the record. He found no facial error in the Report’s conclusions and adopted it in its entirety. The opinion does not itself provide the Report’s full reasoning for each claim.

Disposition

The court granted in part and denied in part the defendants’ motion to dismiss. The motion was granted as to D’Are​​zzo’s sole-authorship and copyright claims. It was denied as to her co-authorship, breach-of-fiduciary-duty, accounting, and constructive-trust claims. The case remained under Judge Aaron’s pretrial supervision. The court also stated that the parties’ failure to object waived appellate review, consistent with the warning in the Report.

Judge

The order was issued by Paul A. Engelmayer, United States District Judge. Stewart D. Aaron served as the magistrate judge who prepared the adopted Report and Recommendation and continued pretrial supervision.