Bob Dylan has quashed a lawsuit levied at him by Jacques Levy’s estate. The suit had been filed in January and claimed that Levy and Dylan had written over 35% of the song on the album together.
The court, however, ruled that Dylan had clearly set out the principles of their agreement and that no further remuneration was required. “Levy’s compensation rights are defined and expressly limited by the terms of the Agreement,” read the documents.
The lawsuit was seeking $7.25 million in repayments for Levy’s contributions to the 1976 record. The album saw Levy help out on landmark songs such as ‘Hurricane‘ and ‘Isis’.
With Dylan selling the publishing rights to his entire back catalogue in December 2020, for a whopping $300 million, Levy’s estate were quickly filing a suit against the freewheelin’ troubadour.
Levy’s estate asserted that they were entitled to a portion of the profits from selling the ten songs Levy had contributed to. At the time, Orin Snyder, Dylan’s attorney, said that the “lawsuit is a sad attempt to unfairly profit off of the recent catalogue sale.”
The case is now settled and Dylan can get on with concentrating on his upcoming release of volume 16 of the Bootleg Series, this time called Springtime in New York, which focuses on the songwriter’s work from 1980 to 1985.
See the trailer for Bootleg Series: Vol. 16 below.
