Court Okays Class Action Against Carroll &Graf
Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 3/29/1999
New York State Supreme Court Justice Barry Cozier has granted a motion made by attorneys for five Carroll &Graf authors that their lawsuit against the publisher be certified as a class action. As a result of the ruling, any author who had a book published by C&G between January 1, 1992, and March 11, 1999, is eligible to participate in the lawsuit, which accuses C&G of underreporting royalties.In the original complaint, filed early last year (News, Feb. 9, 1998), the authors charged that C&G concealed its true domestic and foreign book sales figures and that it withheld an unreasonable reserve against returns. The complaint further alleged that the authors were not supplied with enough information from C&G to determine if they were receiving the proper royalty.
In a separate filing, the authors' attorneys, Lax &Noll, claimed that they have been unable to substantiate the allegations in the complaint because, among other things, C&G's distributor, Publishers Group West, filed a motion to quash the authors' subp na to produce relevant records. As part of his ruling, Judge Cozier denied PGW's motion and ordered all parties to appear before the court last week for purposes of setting a discovery schedule and trial date.
Herman Graf, C&G president, told PW he thinks the ruling was an error, and that the company plans to file an appeal. He said the suit "has no merit whatsoever."
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