A couple of weeks after Led Zeppelin’s music publishers — Warner Chappell Music — asked to recover $800,000 in legal fees spent mounting a successful defense in the “Stairway to Heaven” plagiarism trial, the lawyer for the estate of late Spirit guitarist Randy California has responded.
The Hollywood Reporter lists the reasons given by attorney Francis Malofiy that his client shouldn’t have to pay:
Zeppelin and its co-defendants have “almost unlimited funds,” while the plaintiff is a small charity with scant financial resources.
The jury having ruled in the estate’s favor in one aspect of the case — Zeppelin’s access to the Spirit song “Taurus” — shows that the suit was not totally baseless.
The judge in the similar “Blurred Lines” trial didn’t grant the recovery of legal fees.
Malofiy also considers Warner Chappell’s motion a personal attack on him and doesn’t meet legal standards. The publisher has said they’ll donate any money they recover to a music-related charity.