Beal v. Paramount Pictures

• Decision Date: 10 August 1992
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 1:91-CV-1266 JEC.
• Citation: 806 F. Supp. 963
• Parties: Alveda King BEAL, Plaintiff, v. PARAMOUNT PICTURES, Eddie Murphy, Art Buchwald, et al., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Georgia

806 F. Supp. 963

Alveda King BEAL, Plaintiff, v. PARAMOUNT PICTURES, Eddie Murphy, Art Buchwald, et al., Defendant.

Civ. No. 1:91-CV-1266 JEC.

United States District Court, N.D. Georgia, Atlanta Division.

August 10, 1992.

Earline Smith-Montgomery, Atlanta, Ga., for plaintiff.

June Ann Sanders & Nicholas N. Leach, Atlanta, Ga., for defendant.

ORDER

CARNES, District Judge.

This case is presently before the court on the defendants' motion for summary judgment 8-1 and Eddie Beal's motion to intervene 22-1. This Court has reviewed the record and the arguments of the parties and, for the reasons set out below, GRANTS the motion for summary judgment and DENIES the motion to intervene.

The plaintiff filed her complaint alleging that defendants infringed her copyright in her book, The Arab Heart. The allegedly infringing work was the movie written by and starring Eddie Murphy, "Coming to America."

FACTS

This court has reviewed the two works. The plaintiff, Alveda King Beal, describes The Arab Heart, on its cover, as a "historical tale of romance and adventure." The book's protagonist is Sharaf Ammar Hakim Riad, an Arabian prince in the country of Whada. The book opens with Sharaf riding on a horse across the desert, contemplating his grandfather's, the king's, "command" that he travel to the United States to "attend an American college with a great reputation for technical training." The Arab Heart hereinafter AH, at 3, 2. Whada is a poor country, and the king wants the prince to receive a technical education that will enable him to improve the country's oil production. Initially reluctant, Sharaf agrees to go and decides to attend the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta, where he lives in a comfortable boarding house near campus with a roommate and the bodyguards that the king has sent with him.

Meanwhile, Sharaf's grandfather has had a long war with his half-brother, Mansur, who repeatedly launches terrorist attacks against the king. At Christmas break, the king orders Sharaf home, under the guise of a trip with his roommate, to prepare him to lead the country should the king be killed. In the spring, Sharaf returns to Whada to help fight Mansur in a battle in which Sharaf and the king kill one of Mansur's sons. Sharaf then finishes the year at Georgia Tech.

While Sharaf is in Atlanta, he first dates a woman named Claire Eastman, a cold, opportunistic, white woman from a wealthy family in Boston. Sharaf and Claire share a passionate, extremely physical relationship and Sharaf considers proposing marriage to her, but is concerned whether Claire, whom he suspects of harboring racial prejudices, would be tolerant of and adapt to the very different cultural traditions of Whada.

At the same time that he is involved with Claire, Sharaf becomes interested in another woman, Flora Johnston, a quiet, reserved woman from an affluent family in Savannah. Flora is the offspring of a marriage between a white man and a black woman. Smitten with Sharaf, Flora attempts to gain his attention by performing a sensual belly dance at a Halloween party at which Sharaf and a jealous Claire attend. Although her provocative dance does succeed in capturing the attention of Sharaf, he believes that his feelings for Flora are "brotherly" (AH at 68) and he continues his relationship with Claire, still pondering whether he should ask her to marry him.

Sharaf's dilemma is resolved later when he overhears Claire telling a friend that she would never accept Whadan customs. At that point, he ceases his involvement with Claire and begins a passionate relationship with Flora. Notwithstanding his grandfather's previously expressed wish that Sharaf agree to an arranged marriage in Whada, four weeks later Sharaf and Flora marry during a small, ceremony in Savannah, after which they return to Whada.

In Whada, Flora has difficulty adjusting to the Whadan customs, particularly the treatment of women. Indeed, Sharaf's grandfather, the king, will not accept her into the family until she bears a son. Flora is also concerned about the social conditions in the country, particularly, the poverty. Flora and Sharaf's relationship becomes extremely strained when Flora, who is pregnant at the time, discovers Sharaf in bed with a servant girl.

Flora bears a son, and while she and Sharaf are still estranged, Mansur attacks once again, trying, with the assistance of Sharaf's servant girl paramour, to kidnap his and Flora's infant son. In the ensuing altercation, Mansur and the king are killed, and Sharaf stabs the servant girl. At the end of the book, Sharaf has become the king of Whada. Flora and Sharaf also seem to reconcile, although, because Sharaf's father has advised him that he may continue to pursue extramarital affairs, as long as he is more discreet (AH at 129, 132), the reader is left with the impression that Sharaf has not totally renounced his philandering ways.

"Coming to America" begins by panning miles of lush African jungle. The movie opens on the day of the twenty-first birthday of Prince Akeem of Zamunda, a seemingly opulent and exotic kingdom. On that day, Akeem is to marry the woman that his parents, the king and queen, have chosen for him. Postponing the wedding, Prince Akeem convinces his father that he should have 40 days to "sow his royal oats." He intends to go to America to find a woman who thinks for herself and who will love him for himself, not for his title or his wealth. His father agrees, sending along Akeem's best friend, Semmi. In deciding which city would be the best place to find his wife, the future Queen, Akeem decides that the appropriate locale for such a search is logically Queens, New York.

Arriving in Queens, Akeem rents a ratinfested apartment. Before he even has time to carry his luggage to his apartment, the residents of the neighborhood steal all his belongings, a fact which does not seem to perturb Akeem. Indeed, Akeem tries to hide his identity as a wealthy prince throughout his stay in New York.

In searching for a wife, Akeem and Semmi first go to bars in Queens to meet women, but instead meet only comically inappropriate women there. Another character tells Akeem to go to a Black Awareness Rally to meet a "nice girl." He sees Lisa McDowell there, likes her, and decides to acquire a job in her father's fast-food restaurant in order to meet her. While Akeem and Semmi work in the restaurant, humorous events occur, including Akeem's foiling of an armed robbery with a mop. Shortly thereafter, Lisa breaks up with her boyfriend because of his presumption in having her father announce their engagement at a social occasion, before he had even asked Lisa to marry him.

Akeem and Lisa then begin to date. Several times, in comical scenes, Akeem tries to hide his true identity from Lisa. Semmi, however, who has tired greatly of the poor lifestyle that he and Akeem are leading, wires Prince Akeem's parents for money. Akeem's parents, the king and queen, become disturbed at the news of the impoverished life that Akeem is leading and come to Queens to check on him. When Akeem's parents arrive, Lisa discovers his identity and, as a result, angrily turns down his marriage proposal. Akeem then heads home to Zamunda to enter into the marriage previously arranged by his parents. Akeem's parents have apparently intervened and persuaded Lisa to marry Akeem, however, for, in the last scene of the movie, at the moment that Akeem lifts the veil, expecting to see the face of the "arranged" bride, he instead is pleased to see that Lisa is his bride. Akeem and Lisa drive away to the cheers of jubilant Zamundan citizens and the smiles of their parents.

DISCUSSION

Rule 56(c), Fed.R.Civ.P., states that summary judgment shall be granted if "there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." A factual dispute is genuine "if the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the non-moving party." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). The moving party must "always bear the initial responsibility of informing the district court of the basis of its motion, and identifying those portions of `the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with affidavits, if any' which it believes demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2553, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). Once the movant has met this burden, the nonmoving party is then required to "go beyond the pleading" and present competent evidence designating "specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial." 477 U.S. at 324, 106 S.Ct. at 2553. The court must take the evidence of the nonmovant as true. United States v. Four Parcels of Real Property, 941 F.2d 1428, 1437 (11th Cir.1991).

To state a claim for copyright infringement, a plaintiff must show that she has a valid copyright and that the defendant copied the copyrighted work. Benson v. Coca-Cola, Co., 795 F.2d 973, 974 (11th Cir.1986). If the plaintiff does not have direct proof of copying, the plaintiff may show copying by demonstrating that the defendants had access to the copyrighted work and that the works are "substantially similar." Benson, 795 F.2d at 974. If the plaintiff cannot show access, the plaintiff may still prevail by demonstrating that the works are "strikingly similar." Ferguson v. National Broadcasting Co., 584 F.2d 111, 113 (5th Cir.1978).¹

In this case, the defendants have conceded that issues of fact exist concerning the plaintiff's valid copyright and the defendants' access to the plaintiff's copyrighted work. The defendants, however, maintain that no genuine issue of material fact exists on the issue of substantial similarity.

In order to show substantial similarity, the plaintiff must establish that "an average...