AP: Court to hear appeal on control of iconic John Steinbeck works
Case is the culmination of a long battle by the family of the Nobel Prize-winning author to regain control of copyrights
Another chapter is set to play out this week in a decades-old family dispute over control of the classic works by the author John Steinbeck.
A three-judge panel of the ninth US circuit court of appeals heard arguments in Alaska’s largest city on Tuesday in an appeal by the estate of Steinbeck’s late son, Thomas Steinbeck, over a 2017 jury verdict in California.
In that case, a federal jury awarded the author’s stepdaughter, Waverly Scott Kaffaga, more than $13m in a lawsuit claiming Steinbeck’s son and daughter-in-law, Gail Steinbeck, impeded film adaptations of the iconic works.
It was up to the Los Angeles jury to decide if Thomas and Gail Steinbeck interfered with deals and should pay up. Kaffaga had sued her stepbrother, his widow, Gail, and their company. …
Kaffaga, the executor for the estate of her mother, Elaine Steinbeck, the author’s widow and third wife, had alleged that long-running litigation over the author’s estate prevented her from making the most of his copyrights at a time when marquee names such as Steven Spielberg and Jennifer Lawrence were interested in bringing the masterpieces The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden, back to the screen. She said the deals instead fell apart over the years. …
