Daily Mail reports that Stevie Wonder filed a lawsuit on Thursday claiming his lawyer who died in 2011 duped him into signing a 'forever' royalties contract .
The 65-year-old music legend claimed that his longtime lawyer Johanan Vigoda took advantage of a blind man.
Wonder in his lawsuit claimed that he was unaware of a clause in the contract that he signed at age 21 granting six percent of royalties 'forever' to Vigoda and his heirs.
Vigoda died aged 82 in November 2011 in Reno, Nevada after a short battle with pancreatic cancer.
After his death Wonder's record company continued to make the royalty payments to Vigoda's widow Susan Strack and Wonder claimed in his lawsuit that he didn't realize the payments were being made until 2013.
Wonder stopped making the payments and claimed that Vigoda never said the royalty payments would survive beyond his death.
The singer asked the judge to declare that he no longer has to make the royalty payments alleging that Vigoda took advantage of his blindness.
Strack in February filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Wonder in federal court in Nevada seeking reinstatement of the royalty payments.
Her lawsuit claimed that Wonder, whose real name is Stevland Morris, had a witness read to him the complete terms of the contract before agreeing to it.
Strack was seeking at least $7 million in damages as well as reinstatement of the six percent royalty payments.
New York-native Vigoda represented Wonder for four decades and negotiated his precedent-setting Motown contract after the singing prodigy turned 21.
The contract gave Wonder a much higher royalty rate as well as creative control over his music and rights to his own master recordings.
Ehya.
ReplyDeletea.k.a EDWIN CHINEDU AZUBUKO said...
ReplyDelete.
The word TRUST is so fucking expensive i swear..... A blind man for that matter, that dude should rot in hell and i pray his foolish and devilish wife will join him too... Assholes......
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***CURRENTLY IN JUPITER***
Greedy man...how can lawyer be claiming royalties for life?
ReplyDeleteMy dear.
DeleteIts over now
ReplyDeleteHmmmm
ReplyDeleteAs Vigoda is dead,na im skeleton Steve dey sue?
He should let sleeping dogs lie abeg,since he's stopped paying the royalties.
#WhiteDiamondOut
Don't u pple read before commenting? Or is English that hard a language?
DeleteMadam,read again... The wife is suing him,ha! Did u skip tht part?
DeleteOlodo! U won't read before commenting!!
DeleteHe doesn't want to pay again. The widow wants it by force. Mtchewww. Agreement or contract or wat, he's no longer interested
ReplyDeleteWhat is this one saying.
DeleteIf it is true of his lawyer,then it was really unfair of him.
ReplyDeleteAeegurl...
Seen
ReplyDeleteThat's how evil most humans are,once they see a loophole,they quickly capitalise on it and use u!
ReplyDeleteEven in his blindness,dey couldn't let him. Smh
I'm telling u. Very wicked
DeleteHmmm...
ReplyDeleteTo think he trusted dat lawyer dat much.
#evilmen
Abi o let's fuck jare
Deleteso wicked and that stupid wont go and work ba extracting money from the blind
ReplyDeleteFrom your comments, I bet ur destined to be in HELL FIRE!!! Anu ofia...
ReplyDeleteThe widow is wicked I pray she loses the case.She has no conscience, shame on her forever.
ReplyDeleteSome people no get Joy @all......
ReplyDeleteLawyers!!!
ReplyDeleteLawyers nawa oo
ReplyDelete@Oliviasilk.. u need to start using ur brain and not just a portion of what ur head is housing.. especially if u are to contribute in forums such as this.
ReplyDeletehow u say he should continue paying the fee because u were there when the said agreement was read to him before he signed it? be very careful so u don't go blind, in order for you not to experience what it is like to be born blind and living ur whole life as a blind person..
the late lawyer was a crook.. a legal thief.. and his wife should go to jail for attempting to even file a suit at all.. she shld go to jail on benefits of her late husband.. and believe me the whole idea was not her husband own alone.. she had been part of the plot since the Genesis of the matter.. therefore she shld be punished for stealing from a blind man... btw, how come she didn't die before her husband? probably because of 6% royalty.. ole buruku
wicked widow.lazy ass widow.robbing the blind and still having the temerity to sue?the human heart so wicked.a blind man working for them? i hope she gets hit my a trailer.
ReplyDeleteIf Steve had died before the lawyer I can imagine how he would have manipulated his estate to himself.
DeleteThis is one nasty reality of capitalism! People throw morality out d window just to make money. I trust d Judge to correct this anomaly because this lifetime royalty clause is a scam. D wife no get shame Sef
ReplyDeletethese autocorrects nowadays won't allow a nigga type fluently in peace on his phone with interruption! .. i nigga clearly typed "ON BEHALF* but * benefits* of her husband magically appeared.. all thanks to autocorrect
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't he provide him a braille copy of the agreement instead of reading it to him? I'm sure he was deceived. Poor Steve
ReplyDelete@sisi eko i'm not a law expert but I thought all contracts expire on event of death so the contract is illegal and null to even begin with whether it was in braill or verbal.
ReplyDeleteFDB correct. What I meant was that ab-initio he should have been made to read the agreement himself. I wasn't even concerned about the validity of the said contract.
ReplyDelete