Summary: A jury ruled in favor of Steve Harvey during a $50 million contract dispute case.
Name someone who just avoided paying $50 million.
Survey says–Steve Harvey!
The Family Feud host was sued by videographer Joe Cooper for $50 million. The videographer claimed that Harvey blocked the release of videos he shot at Harvey’s comedy club, even though the two had allegedly agreed beforehand that the videographer would be allowed to publish the tapes for profit. Harvey countered that the two never had such an agreement; and on Thursday, a jury agreed with the big mustached comedian.
Cooper worked for Harvey in 1993. In his 2014 lawsuit, he claimed that he and Harvey struck a deal that his videography company, Close Up Video Productions, would be the exclusive videographer for Dallas-based Steve Harvey Comedy Club. Cooper said that as part of their agreement, Cooper would retain the rights to the 120 hours of video that was shot in the club.
“Harvey knew that Cooper intended to use his videos of Harvey’s performances to create videos that would be sold at retail,” the complaint obtained by Courthouse News stated. “Harvey did not disagree with Cooper’s plans, but requested that Cooper delay in selling videos using Harvey’s performances. Cooper understood that the release of the videos might interfere with Harvey’s plans for his career at that time. Cooper decided to delay his Harvey video project because the videos would become more valuable if Harvey became a bigger celebrity.”
Cooper’s lawsuit said that Cooper wanted to release the tapes for profit, but that Harvey blocked the release. Cooper said Harvey didn’t want embarrassing racist and sexist material published such as Harvey allegedly telling the audience to “go assault old white women.” Harvey said that Cooper was hired internally and that the club owned the tapes. He said that Cooper wanted to release the footage to try to extort the famous TV host.
Cooper’s allegations came before Harvey was blasted on social media recently for stating that women did not like to date Asian men. The comedian issued a half-hearted apology in response to the racial controversy; and he quickly bounced back in his career, earning a spot from President Donald Trump as a lead of the Department of Urban Housing.
Without hearing any of Harvey’s stand-up on the tapes, the jurors decided that Cooper misappropriated Harvey’s name and likeness. They concluded that no contract ever existed and that Harvey did not consent to the release of Cooper’s videos. After the decision, the two parties entered into a settlement and ended the trial.
Source: Courthouse News
Photo courtesy of Just Jared
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