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2012 Merchandise & Miscellaneous News Archives

July 18, 2012: DC Files Motion for Summary Judgment in Superman Case

Trial of Superman Reports are circulating that there's been an interesting development in the ongoing legal battle over the rights to Superman, with claims that DC Comics made a startling pre-emptive strike against the Shuster Estate's claim for their 50% share of the original rights to Superman, with evidence of an agreement made between them in 1992.

The fact is, this is nothing new, this legal argument, the 1992 agreement and subsequent affirmation in correspondence were all part of the original complaint in 2009, and there have been literally hundreds of filings since then on this matter. It has been explained to the Superman Homepage that DC's filing on Monday was a motion for summary judgment, which asks the court to issue a final decision based on the existing record rather than go forward with a jury trial.

    In a motion for summary judgment, a party is asking the judge to make a ruling based on the existing case record without going forward with a trial. The factual predicate for such a decision is supposed to be the case's undisputed facts. That's why you see the abbreviation "SUF" throughout the most recent filing - it's a reference to the "Statement of Undisputed Facts" proposed by DC. The summary judgment filing, the proposed SUF and the attached exhibits collect all of the material favorable to DC in order to persuade the judge to make a final judgment in its favor regarding the claims initially filed in the 2009 complaint (as amended somewhat a year later).

    This isn't to say the summary judgment filing is unimportant - to the contrary, it could lead to the end of the case or at least provide the basis of an appeal, as we have already seen following the district court's historic 2008 summary judgment giving the Siegel heirs half of the Superman copyright. However, what this filing does not do is add unexpected arguments and facts. The whole point of a summary judgment filing is to say there's nothing new left to discuss.

Read Jeff Trexler's complete report on this at ComicsBeat.com.

A 25 page document can be found at the 20th Century Danny Boy blog.


2012 Merchandise & Miscellaneous News

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