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Disney Wins Again in Pooh Case

In the 16-year court battle over WINNIE THE POOH royalties, Disney came out ahead again as a California appellate court upheld the dismissal of the case on grounds of misconduct, VARIETY reports. A three-judge panel ruled that L.A. Superior Court Judge Charles McCoy's 2004 decision to throw out the case was justified after the plaintiffs, the Slesinger family, altered and destroyed documents.

Stephen Slesinger Inc. plans to appeal the ruling to the California Supreme Court. Additionally, it will continue to try and terminate the POOH license with Disney in a federal court case, which was originally brought to court by Disney, Clare Milne and Minette Hunt, the granddaughters of POOH author A.A. Milne and POOH illustrator E.H. Shepard, to strip the Slesingers of the POOH license.

In McCoy's original decision, he stated that Pati Slesinger and her husband David Bentson paid private investigator Terry Sands to find documents that could help their case. McCoy felt Sands was not credible when he said that he obtained sensitive documents from only publicly accessible trash bins. Moreover, McCoy believed that Pati Slesinger had altered the documents in an effort to mask their origins.

McCoy's 2004 ruling was a huge win for Disney, who previously was sanctioned in the proceedings for destroying documents.

The case began when the Slesinger family felt it was being cheated out of royalties on the POOH franchise, which the North American rights were acquired by Stephen Slesinger in the 1930s. In the 1960s, Slesinger's wife, Shirley Slesinger Lasswell, who has since passed away, licensed POOH to Disney. As the most profitable property at Disney, the Slesingers believe they are owed between $12 and $15 billion. Disney, in 2002, filed the federal lawsuit, which the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Slesingers.

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Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
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