|
|
|
|
NEWS ARCHIVE: AUGUST 2001
|
Author seeks triple damages in breach suit| BOSTON, Massachusetts, August 23, 2001 -- Attorneys representing author Misha Defonseca asked Judge Elizabeth Fahey of Middlesex Superior Court to triple the jury award against a small publisher in a breach of contract suit. Fahey requested further written submissions and scheduled a hearing for October 1. The jury awarded Defonseca and co-author $10.8 million after hearing that the now-defunct publishing house, Mt. Ivy Press, had misled them about its promotion planning for the book. Defonseca's attorneys argued in a followup hearing state law allows triple damages for "extremely egregious" conduct "clearly outside the penumbra of any established concept of fairness." |
|
|
|
Mt. Ivy: Defonesca overstated claims| BOSTON, Massachusetts, August 22, 2001 -- The owner of Mt. Ivy Press, Jane Daniel, said she was "flabbergasted'' by a $10.8 million verdict against her company in a suit filed by two co-authors. Daniel said in an interview after the verdict that the primary author, Misha Levy Defonseca, made much more than she let on, including more than $100,000 on French rights. Defonseca and co-author Vera Lee said they had been cheated out of royalties by Mt. Ivy. They also claimed the Mt. Ivy missed promotion opportunities, including an Oprah Winfrey interview. About the Winfrey interview, Daniel said Defonseca wouldn't cooperate, adding she had no reason as the book's publisher to stopped the interview. "Why would I do that?'' she asked rhetorically. |
|
|
|
Jury awards $10.8 in contract suitBOSTON, Massachusetts, August 21, 2001 -- A jury awarded $7.5 million to Holocaust survivor Misha Defonseca and $3.3 million to her co-author in a suit against Mt. Ivy Press, which published Defonseca's memoirs in 1997. The jury found that Mt. Ivy Press hid royalties in off-shore accounts and defrauded Defonseca by misleading her about how the book would be marketed. In a news release, the New York law firm of Sullivan & Worcester said the verdict culminated several years' legal effort: "The firm has pursued Defonseca's case without payment because of the compelling circumstances of Defonseca's life and her victimization at the hands of Mt. Ivy." The law firm gave this account:"Defonseca was reluctant to tell the story of how, at the age of 7, she fled to the Belgian forests in 1941 when her parents were taken by the Nazis. But a publisher persuaded her to work with a writer, to produce Misha: A Memoir of the Holocaust Years, which recounted the four years Defonseca spent living in the woods, sometimes beside wolves, hiding from the Nazis during World War II. First published by Mt. Ivy Press in 1997, the book was a bestseller in France, Italy and Quebec, and caught the eye of movie producers, including Walt Disney Studios. However, it sold only 5,000 copies in the United States because Mt. Ivy terminated marketing efforts, including a segment on the Oprah Winfrey Show, in support of the book in 1997. Misha Defonseca now hopes to tell her story in the United States by reprinting the book and selling its movie rights." |
|
|
 |
|
|
