ABC suffered a setback in Prospect Park's multi-million dollar lawsuit over the licensing of All My Children and One Life to Live. Following a 50-minute hearing in Los Angeles County Superior Court, a judge denied ABC's motion to strike part of Prospect Park's complaint that seeks an extension of the agreement period and a waiving of licensing fees.
According to Deadline, ABC's attorney Susan Klein argued that Prospect Park "can't ask the court to rewrite what the parties have negotiated."
Prospect Park filed its original claim against ABC in April 2013, alleging that ABC attempted to undermine its efforts to relaunch All My Children and One Life to Live. In an amended filing in November 2013, Prospect Park asked the court to extend its licensing agreement, which originally was structured to allow Prospect Park the rights to AMC and OLTL for 15 seasons unless Prospect Park stopped production for 18 consecutive months. In that case, rights to both shows would revert back to ABC. In addition, Prospect Park wants a court to find that it should not have to pay licensing fees to ABC during the duration of the lawsuit.
"After hearing the arguments from them and you," LA Superior Court judge Robert Hess told ABC. "I'm going to let them leave it in."
Prospect Park seeks more than $95 million in damages for breach of contract and promissory fraud.
ABC has 20 days to respond to Prospect Park's amended complaint. The next hearing in the ongoing legal dispute is a conference-case management meeting. The meeting is not part of a trial, but rather a meeting between both parties and the judge in an attempt to settle some or all of the issues in the dispute before going to trial. That meeting is set for March 13.
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