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Joyce and Mediation
Stanford University Acting Professor of English Carol Shloss won the right to publish her scholarship on the literary work of James Joyce online and in print based on a settlement agreement with the Joyce Estate.
She successfully mediated her copyright lawsuit, dismissed the action, and then recovered all of her legal fees and costs as the "prevailing party" with some very clever maneuvering at mediation.
Upon learning of Shloss's scholarship, the Joyce Estate---controlled by Joyce's grandson Stephen James Joyce---denied her permission to quote from any of the materials the Joyce Estate controlled and repeatedly threatened Shloss with a copyright infringement suit.
The Fair Use Project and Cyberlaw Clinic filed a lawsuit on behalf of Shloss in June 2006, asking a federal court to find that she has the right to use quotations from published and unpublished material relating to James and Lucia Joyce on a scholarly website.
The Joyce Estate has been extremely aggressive in enforcing copyrights and has threatened scholars with lawsuits even though their work qualifies under the 'fair use' doctrine of copyright law Shloss got exactly what she asked for in her complaint, and more.
In 2003, prior to publishing Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake about Lucia's influence on Finnegans Wake, Shloss was forced to delete substantial evidentiary portions of the manuscript to avoid the threat of copyright litigation from the Estate.
The settlement provided that the Joyce Estate would not sue Shloss for Copyright infringement based on the professor's publication of her supplement, whether in print or online, and in return, Shloss would dismiss the action.
Following the mediation and dismissal of the action, Shloss filed a motion with the District Court seeking recovery of her attorney fees and costs.
Mediation Case studies
Case Study #1
An elderly man and a middle aged woman were in dispute over the beneficial ownership of a house in Dublin worth €900,000. He claims that he organised the deposit for the house and paid the mortgage on the house and they lived as man and wife. The woman (a practising solicitor) claimed that there was no relationship but admits having the house valued several years ago and making out a cheque to the man for €250,000 half the then value.
Case Study #2
An accountant became a franchisee in a small business accountancy franchise. The accountant tires of the franchise and claims that there is insufficient business leads, the franchise owner turns off the franchisee's phone and writes to all the franchisee's clients giving an introducion to another accountant. After causing all this havoc the franchise owner then sues the franchisee for breach of contract. During the mediation there are allegations of racial abuse.
Case Study #3
Partners. Relationships became strained in a four partner business consultancy and were sliding into ruinous litigation. The main issues between the partners were that the main partner would not relinquish control even though the other partners have 60%, he continues to make decisions and ignores other partners decisions. The main partner owns the offices and the other partners see it as profiteering and they want to change lease or move offices. This dispute was settled for less than high court legal fees.
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