our Brief has been submitted
ri...@marathonent.com
California Supreme Court.
The Brief, using a litany of existing law and legal precedent,
delineates how California's Courts and Labor Commission have wrongly
enforced the Talent Agencies Act (TAA) since its January 1979
enactment:
· Enforcing the precepts of the TAA against anyone who is not in
the occupation of talent agenting is against the California
Constitution, Article 4, Section 9;
· That as statutes demanding personal managers get licensed were
first written in and then rejected during the formation of the TAA,
neither Courts nor the Labor Commission has had the right to reinsert
managers into the Act's precepts; and
· That even if personal managers were guilty of licensing
violations, it should not have disgorged their rights to their
contracts with their clients.
These mistakes in enforcement have kept managers from reaping some 200
to 300 million dollars in otherwise-owed commissions from being paid.
Just a few of the hundreds of examples: Anita Baker saved about 7M in
commissions, Jewel some 6M in commissions, Arsenio Hall about 11M,
Connie Stevens some 15M and Sean Hayes about 2.5M in commissions due to
Labor commission decisions that are in conflict with both the
Legislators' intent when they created the Act and clear California
law.
A ruling reaffirming Marathon's contentions will be sweeping in
scope. Personal managers are hired, fired, and are to be paid by their
actor, musician, writer, director etc clients. Allowing these artists
to avoid this responsibility has left managers without the same rights
as every other worker in America has counted on since the enactment of
the 13th Amendment: the right to be paid for their labors. Hopefully
the upcoming California Supreme Court ruling will change this inequity
from every happening again.
Anyone who wants to see the brief should contact me at
ri...@marathonent.com. Best, Rick