Success stories

Claim of amount against a production company for breach of contract and non-payment

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OBJECTIVE

  • Claim of amount against an audio-visual production company for breach of contract and non-payment of the agreed compensation.
  • The production company had been commissioned by a third party (trademark) to produce an advertising spot. Therefore, the production company requested our client to assign the image rights over a person for the audio-visual recording of an advertising spot that would later be broadcast on radio and television for the promotion of that trademark.
  • After the assignment of the image and recording rights, the production company refused to comply with the contract and pay the agreed price. 
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METHOD

  • In summary, the production company claimed that its client (the trademark) had refused to broadcast the recorded advertising material, which is why it refused to comply with the payment obligations undertaken with our client.
  • After a first injunction and an out-of-court settlement, which turned out to be unsuccessful, the corresponding lawsuit was filed to claim the fulfilment of the contract and the payment of the agreed price, plus interest and legal costs.
  • The strategy used was to prove that our client had complied with all its contractual obligations, arguing in our suit that the image rights were assigned from the moment the recordings of all the audio-visual material were made, and this regardless of the subsequent use or non-use of such material by the production company or the trademark, a circumstance on which compliance with the contract could not depend.
  • A great deal of documentary evidence was provided on the contracting process between the parties, on the works and recordings carried out, as well as on various witnesses in order to explain the particularities of this type of contract.
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RESULT

  • The Court of First Instance upheld the claim in full, ordering the defendant company to pay the full price of the contract with interest and costs, on the grounds that the contract was fully enforceable between the parties (with reciprocal obligations) and that its performance could not be left to the defendant’s discretion.
  • The ruling considered that it was proven that our client had fulfilled the obligations assumed in the contract, so that if the recordings were not subsequently used by the trademark this was due to causes beyond our client’s control, which in no way could be used by the defendant to stop fulfilling the obligations assumed.
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