Keep On Kicking Music, Inc v. Universal Music Group, Inc.
- James Oetken
- 1:23-cv-04400
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Keep On Kicking Music v. Universal Music Group, Judge Moses scheduled the discovery-stay request for a March 7 conference and set briefing deadlines.
The order affected the plaintiffs, Kreyol Music, Inc., Melodie Makers, Inc., and the Universal defendants by setting deadlines and scheduling consideration of the request to pause discovery.
What happened
Keep On Kicking Music, Inc. and other plaintiffs sued Universal Music Group, Inc. and others over ownership of rights in the musical work Espoir/Composition X. Defendants Kreyol Music, Inc. and Melodie Makers, Inc. asked the court to pause discovery while their motion to dismiss was pending.
Kreyol Music and Melodie Makers argued that the court lacked authority over them and that New York was an inconvenient place to resolve the ownership dispute. They also argued that the witnesses and documents were in Florida or Haiti. The plaintiffs were seeking to begin discovery, but discovery had not yet started.
Judge Barbara Moses did not decide the request to pause discovery in this order. She stated that the request would be addressed at the March 7, 2024 conference and set March 4 for any opposition and March 6 for any reply.
The detailed version
- Keep On Kicking Music, Inc v. Universal Music Group, Inc. · No. 1:23-cv-04400
- James Oetken
- Feb. 28, 2024
Background
The plaintiffs—Keep On Kicking Music, Inc., Keep On Moving Music, Inc., and Free World Music, Limited—brought claims against Kreyol Music, Inc. and Melodie Makers, Inc. concerning ownership of the composition, publishing, and sound-recording rights in Espoir/Composition X. The Universal defendants also asserted a related crossclaim.
Kreyol Music and Melodie Makers moved to dismiss the claims against them for lack of personal jurisdiction, meaning they argued that this court lacked legal authority over them. Alternatively, they sought dismissal on forum non conveniens grounds, arguing that another forum would be more appropriate. They contended that the relevant witnesses and documents were in Florida or Haiti and that New York had no connection to the dispute.
Discovery-stay request
Kreyol Music and Melodie Makers asked the court to stay, or temporarily pause, discovery while the court considered their motion to dismiss. They cited Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c), which allows a court to pause discovery for good cause. The plaintiffs were seeking to begin discovery, and the parties were scheduled to appear before Magistrate Judge Moses on March 7, 2024.
Order
The order did not grant or deny the request to stay discovery. It stated that the request was before Judge Moses and would be addressed at the March 7 conference. The order required any opposition to the defendants’ motion to be filed by March 4, 2024, and any reply by March 6, 2024.
The order therefore addressed scheduling and discovery while the dismissal motion was pending; it did not decide personal jurisdiction, forum non conveniens, or ownership of the disputed rights.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.