Short of a compromise at a June 10th meeting with a court-appointed mediator, Courtney Love's lawsuit against the Universal Music Group will go before a jury on June 11th, but some of the teeth were pulled from the former Hole frontwoman's case when a judge threw out a portion of her suit that challenged California labor law.

On May 30th, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Fumiko Wasserman issued a five-page ruling in which he dismissed Love's claim that the provision to the labor law, which allows record companies to sue recording artists for damages, was unconstitutional. Love had hoped to apply the "De Havilland Law," a 1945 statute limiting actors' contracts to seven years and thus freeing them from long-term contracts with movie studios, to the music industry.

The legal tangle began after Love stated her intention to cease recording for Geffen Records (which was folded into UMG) in 1999. In January 2000, Universal/Geffen filed a lawsuit against Love and Hole for damages, claiming that the band owed the label five additional albums. Love countersued last year, claiming breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, faulty accounting and other claims. She also brought up the "De Havilland Law," for which a loophole had been created in 1987 for the recording industry, behind the reasoning that music contracts require longer-term investment and development. Love and Eagles singer Don Henley have been fronting the Recording Artists Coalition, a group of musicians seeking to amend that loophole, likening their tenure at major labels to indentured servitude.

Should the case go to trial, it will do so without Hole as a viable group at its center. Love and guitarist Eric Erlandson announced the band's split last month.

ANDREW DANSBY
(May 31, 2002)