Jones v. Glad Music Publ'g & Recording LP

• Decision Date: 21 April 2021
• Docket Number: Case No. 3:20-cv-00920
• Citation: 535 F.Supp.3d 723
• Parties: Bryan D. JONES et al., Plaintiffs, v. GLAD MUSIC PUBLISHING & RECORDING LP d/b/a Glad Music Co. and/or Glad Music Publishing, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Tennessee

535 F.Supp.3d 723

Bryan D. JONES et al., Plaintiffs,

v.GLAD MUSIC PUBLISHING & RECORDING LP d/b/a Glad Music Co. and/or Glad Music Publishing, et al., Defendants.

Case No. 3:20-cv-00920

United States District Court, M.D. Tennessee, Nashville Division.

Filed April 21, 2021

Ramona P. DeSalvo, DeSalvo Law Firm PLLC, Nashville, TN, for Plaintiffs.

Chris L. Vlahos, Jenna Lyn Harris, Ritholz Levy Fields, LLP, Nashville, TN, Tracy J. Willi, Willi Law Firm, Austin, TX, for Defendants Glad Music Publishing & Recording LP, Pappy Daily Music LP.

Patrick B. Newsom, Bruno Newsom PLLC, Nashville, TN, for Defendant Nancy Jones.

MEMORANDUM

ALETA A. TRAUGER, United States District Judge

Before the court is the Motion to Dismiss (Doc. No. 74) filed by defendant Dwayne D. Maddox, III, as Administrator Ad Litem of the Estate of Donald Evans Gilbreth ("Maddox"), for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and, alternatively, improper venue.

For the reasons set forth herein, the court will grant the motion and dismiss the claims against Maddox for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Although defendants David Snoddy and World-Wide Records, Inc. ("World-Wide") did not join in the motion, the court also finds that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the claims against these defendants (collectively with Maddox, the "Maddox defendants") and will dismiss the claims against these defendants sua sponte.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs Bryan D. Jones and Jeffery G. Jones ("Bryan and Jeffery" or "the plaintiffs") bring suit against numerous defendants, including the Maddox defendants, asserting several claims, many of which do not concern the Maddox defendants. The court will attempt to summarize here only the facts relevant to Maddox's Motion to Dismiss. The facts set forth below are drawn from the Complaint (Doc. No. 1).

The plaintiffs are both citizens and residents of Texas. Several entity defendants are alleged to have their principal place of business in Texas. At least two defendants other than Maddox are alleged to be citizens of Tennessee. Dwayne Maddox is an attorney licensed in the State of Tennessee and was appointed by the Probate Court for Benton County, Tennessee as the administrator ad litem of the Estate of Donald Evans Gilbreth ("Gilbreth Estate"). Snoddy is a citizen and resident of Alabama, and World-Wide is an Alabama corporation with its principal place of business in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. (Doc. No. 1 ¶¶ 1–10.) The plaintiffs assert that this court has federal question jurisdiction over the Complaint because the case arises under the laws of the United States, 28 U.S.C. § 1331, and, more specifically, because the case "arises under the Copyright Act," for purposes of 28 U.S.C. § 1338(a). (Doc. No. 1 ¶ 11.) The Complaint asserts that venue in this district is proper under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1391 and 1400.

Bryan and Jeffery are the adult sons of the late country music recording artist and songwriter George Jones and the late Shirley Ann (Jones) Arnold ("Shirley Ann"), to whom George Jones was married from 1954 until their divorce in 1968. In April 1968, in contemplation of their divorce, Shirley Ann and George Jones entered into a written agreement that provided, in pertinent part, that, in settlement of the parties’ community property rights, Shirley Ann would receive "[o]ne-half of the song writer's rights to all songs written by the said George Glenn Jones, which are presently published or controlled by Broadcast Music International [‘BMI’]," and George Jones would receive the other half. (Doc. No. 1 ¶ 16.) On June 11, 1968, Shirley Ann and George executed a Supplemental Property Settlement Agreement ("Supplemental Agreement") that similarly divided evenly between them the songwriter's rights to all songs written during the marriage by George Jones and controlled by BMI. (Id. ¶ 17.) In addition, the Supplemental Agreement specified that George Jones would receive as his "separate property" "all recording rights and record sale rights in the songs he ha[d] sung with Musicor, Starday, Mercury and any other recording company that he might have performed for." (Id. )

Many of the allegations in the Complaint concerning the other defendants pertain to the songwriter rights that were granted to Shirley Ann in the divorce and inherited by Bryan and Jeffery upon her death in 1991.¹ As relevant to Maddox's Motion to Dismiss, the plaintiffs allege that, in May 2020, they learned of the existence of eight reel-to-reel master tapes of recorded songs created by George Jones in 1966 in Sumner County, Tennessee ("1966 Masters"), during the marriage of Shirley Ann and George Jones and currently held in a safe deposit box at First Bank in either Benton or Carroll County, Tennessee. (Id. ¶ 37.) The plaintiffs believe that the 1966 Masters capture recordings that embody musical compositions that are part of the "pre-divorce catalogue," "one-half of which was voluntarily transferred by George Jones to Shirley [Ann] by written agreement ... and transferred by testamentary disposition to Bryan and Jeffery." (Id. ¶ 38.) The plaintiffs also allege that the 1966 Masters and the recordings they capture were not disclosed as assets of the marital estate during the divorce proceedings and were not awarded to George Jones as his separate property in his divorce from Shirley Ann. (Id. ¶ 39.) As a result, Shirley Ann retained a one-half community property interest in the 1966 Masters (and the GJ Sings Masters, discussed below), which Bryan and Jeffery inherited from Shirley Ann upon her death in 1991. (See id. ¶¶ 66, 68(j).)

According to the Complaint, defendant David Snoddy filed a declaratory judgment action in the Circuit Court for Benton County, Tennessee ("State Court action") in November 2013 against defendants World-Wide Records, Inc. ("World-Wide") and Maddox, as the representative of the Gilbreth Estate, seeking a resolution of the ownership of certain other master recordings entitled George Jones Sings Hank Williams (the "GJ Sings Masters") and, apparently, the 1966 Masters as well. (Hereinafter, the two sets of masters are referred to, collectively, as the "Masters," except where such usage is ambiguous.) The GJ Sings Masters supposedly "contain eight of the [1966] Masters and two additional master tracks recorded during [George] Jones's marriage to [Shirley Ann]." (Id. ¶ 40.)

By way of background, the Complaint further explains that Gilbreth and Snoddy were indicted on federal drug trafficking charges in 1984, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana ("Louisiana Court"), at which time Gilbreth pledged the "Masters" (apparently meaning both the 1966 Masters and the GJ Sings Masters) as security for appearance bonds for himself and Snoddy. At a hearing concerning the bonds, the value of the Masters was determined to be approximately $1.5 million. (Id. ¶ 42.) In July 1984, Snoddy and Gilbreth were convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms.² When they reported to prison, their appearance bonds were canceled. According to the Complaint, the Louisiana Court originally ordered that the Masters should be returned to Gilbreth, but a supplemental order directed that they be returned to Gilbreth's attorney in the criminal proceeding. Despite a receipt for the return of the Masters signed by Gilbreth's attorney, the Masters purportedly remained in the possession of the Clerk of Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana until May 30, 2018. Gilbreth, in the interim, had died intestate in July 2005.³

In April 2018, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana ("Louisiana Court") ordered the Masters transferred to Maddox. Maddox retrieved the tapes and transported them to Tennessee. (Id. ¶ 45.) He filed an inventory with the Probate Court for Benton County, Tennessee in the Gilbreth Estate probate proceedings in July 2018, identifying the Masters as an asset of the Estate and stating that they were in a safe deposit box at First Bank. Bryan and Jeffery believe that the Masters remain in the safe deposit box at First Bank in either Benton or Carroll County, Tennessee. (Id. ¶ 46.)

Also in July 2018, an order was entered in the State Court action finding that Snoddy and Gilbreth were equal owners of "the George Jones recordings" previously held by the Louisiana Court and currently in the possession of the Gilbreth Estate. (Id. ¶ 47.) That finding was apparently based on evidence presented by Snoddy as to how the 1966 Masters had come into Gilbreth's possession in 1982 and then into World-Wide's possession in 1983, when Snoddy and Gilbreth formed World-Wide, and then became jointly owned by Snoddy and Gilbreth. (Id. ¶¶ 48–56.) According to documentation submitted by Snoddy to the Louisiana Court, the GJ Sings Masters are a "compilation containing ten masters that had not been distributed or sold commercially." (Id. ¶ 57.)

World-Wide registered a copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office in May 1983 for a sound recording with ten tracks entitled George Jones sings Hank Williams and other great country hits. (Id. ¶ 58.) The plaintiffs claim that these ten tracks were first recorded during George Jones's marriage to Shirley Ann and "include[ ] eight of the [1966] Masters." (Id. ¶ 59.) No documents were filed with the U.S. Copyright Office identifying Snoddy or Gilbreth as "copyright claimants to any musical compositions authored by George Jones or to any sound recordings performed by George Jones, whether in whole or in part." (Id. ¶ 60.)

The Complaint asserts two "Causes of Action," or claims for relief, that pertain to the Maddox defendants. The first is a claim for declaratory relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2201, seeking judicial declarations to the effect that

(1) the State Court judgment "granting equal ownership of the Masters to Snoddy and the Estate of Donald Evans Gilbreth is of no force and effect in that said Tennessee Circuit Court has no jurisdiction to determine copyright ownership

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