United States Ninth Circuit

In a suit brought by the daughter of screenwriter, filmmaker, and actor Orson Welles, against defendants seeking a declaratory judgment that she owns the copyright and home video rights to the motion picture Citizen Kane and seeking an accounting of royalties alleged to be owed from the movie's profits, summary judgment for defendants is vacated in part and remanded where: 1) the claim of copyright ownership was not barred by the statute of limitations; 2) there was a genuine issue of material fact regarding who owns the right to distribute Citizen Kane on home video; 3) summary judgment was properly granted for defendants on the issue of ownership of the movie's copyright; and 4) summary judgment on a claim for profit participation was error as there was conflicting evidence about whether Orson Welles and a company entered into a post-1944 agreement to share the movie's profits.

Appellate Information

• Argued 04/16/2007
• Decided 05/30/2007
• Published 05/30/2007

Judges

• Before:  JEROME FARRIS and RONALD M. GOULD, Circuit Judges, and KEVIN THOMAS DUFFY, District Judge.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Steven Ames Brown, San Francisco, CA, for plaintiff-appellant Beatrice Welles., Louis P. Petrich, Leopold, Petrich & Smith, Los Angeles, CA, for Amicus Curiae Motion Picture Association of America, Inc.


• For Appellees:
  
• David W. Quinto, Daryl M. Crone, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges LLP, Los Angeles, CA, for defendants-appellees Turner Entertainment Co. and Entertainment Acquisition Co.