Bankruptcy Thwarts Auction of O.J. Book
By Bridget Kinsella -- Publishers Weekly, 4/16/2007 4:49:00 AM
By Bridget Kinsella
Tomorrow's scheduled auction for the rights to O.J. Simpson’s book If I Did It has been cancelled because the company that holds the rights, Lorraine Brooke Associates, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Florida Friday.
Since Judge Gerald Rosenberg ruled that proceeds from the public auction should go to the estate of Ronald Goldman as part of the civil wrongful death judgment against Simpson, the families of Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson have wrangled over the fate of the book.In Los Angeles County Superior Court earlier on Friday, Judge Rosenberg ruled that since the Brown family did not properly renew the wrongful death judgment against Simpson, they were not entitled to half of the proceeds from the book auction for Simpson’s children and could not stand in the way of the auction. The bankruptcy filing by Lorraine Brooke Associates ceases the auction because the rights to If I Did It are considered an asset of the company. In bankruptcy proceedings a trustee is appointed to sell the company’s assets.
Greg Hafif, the Brown family lawyer told PW that the family’s goal was to “prevent the book from being published” and he called the LBA bankruptcy “probably the best news of all.”
But the Goldman family is not giving up, according to their lawyer, David J. Cook. “The real owner of the book is not Lorraine Brooke Associates, it’s O.J. Simpson, Cook told PW. Since the Superior Court in Los Angeles ruled that the proceeds of the book go to the Goldman family as part of their wrongful death judgment against Simpson, Cook said they will challenge the bankruptcy trustee’s sale of the book.
“This bankruptcy is a way station to justice,” said Cook. “The Goldman family legal circus will relocate its digs to Miami and wrest the book out of the trustee’s hands.”
Cook thought the timing of LBA’s bankruptcy filing on Friday was suspicious. He said the L.A. judge ruled against the Brown family at 10:55 a.m. and at 11:05 a.m. LBA filed for bankruptcy in Florida. He said LBA was a “sham corporation” that included the Simpson children as shareholders.
“We are going to try to get this asset back from the trustee and put it on the auction block again,” said Cook.
