Lawsuit Against Rodgers & Hart

The lawsuit brought by Edward W. Roman against songwriters Richard Rodger and Lorenz Hart was filed on October 13, 1936, in Rensselaer County Supreme Court in Troy, New York.

The suit sought to restrain publication of “Blue Moon,” which Roman claimed to have written, and to compel publishers to make an accounting of royalties on copies already sold. It asked for payment of back royalties owed to him.

Also named as defendants were Jack Mahoney, the New York song broker (doing business as Mahoney and Associates); Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.; and MGM’s music publisher Robbins Music Corp. It was that firm’s founder, Jack Robbins, who had successfully sold the song throughout the country. A settlement was reached on January 15, 1937.

As a matter of public record, the lawsuit was accessible. Our query to the Rensselaer County Clerk (see email below) was the first step in an effort to review and analyze the documents.

The images shown below are copies of the actual court records. You may also view the entire set of pages in PDF format.

See PDF of the 1936 Lawsuit Against Rodgers & Hart

Copies of Actual Court Records

The images below are copies of actual court records of the copyright infringement lawsuit against Rodgers & Hart.

Choose any image to view it or to navigate through all of the images. Any image can be enlarged by using the controls on the top of the screen in the gallery.

Or view: PDF of the 1936 Lawsuit Against Rodgers & Hart

MGM Settlement Payment

At the Margaret Herrick Library in Los Angeles, researcher John Cork found a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer accounting record dated February 5, 1937, three weeks after the lawsuit involving “Blue Moon” had settled.

The document recounts a payment by MGM, in the amount of $500, to Wattenberg & Wattenberg, attorneys for defendants Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. It is identified as a “Settlement,” to be debited from the account of “Song—Manhattan Melodrama,” an earlier iteration of the song that became “Blue Moon.”

This could be the record of MGM’s and music publisher Robbins Music Corp.’s payment of its share of the $1,500 settlement, with the remainder to be covered, in equal $500 amounts, by the other defendants, Jack Mahoney and Rodgers/Hart.

Email from Rensselaer County Clerk with lawsuit PDF attached