Irena Narell v. Cynthia Freeman, AKA Bea Fineberg, G.P. Putnam's Sons, Berkeley Publishing Corp.

872 F.2d 907 1989 Copr.L.Dec. P 26,413 , 10 U.S.P.Q.2d 1596 , 16 Media L. Rep. 1579 Irena NARELL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Cynthia FREEMAN, aka Bea Fineberg, G.P. Putnam's Sons, Berkeley Publishing Corp., Defendants-Appellees. No. 88-2491. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted Jan. 9, 1989. Decided April 17, 1989. Daniel H. Bookin, Farella, Braun & Martel, San Francisco, Cal., for Irena Narell, plaintiff-appellant. Charles D. Chalmers, Feldman, Waldman & Kline, San Francisco, Cal., for Cynthia Freeman. Jessica Pers, D. Christopher Kerby, Stephen Bomse, Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe, San Francisco, Cal., for G.P. Putnam's Sons and Berkeley Pub. Corp., defendants-appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Before SKOPIL, FARRIS and HALL, Circuit Judges. FARRIS, Circuit Judge: 1 Irena Narell appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment to Cynthia Freeman, G.P. Putnam's Sons, and Berkeley Publishing in this copyright infringement action. Narell claims that in writing Illusions of Love, Freeman copied substantial portions of Narell's Our City: The Jews of San Francisco. We affirm…

Irena Narell appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment to Cynthia Freeman, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, and Berkeley Publishing in this copyright infringement action. Narell claims that in writing Illusions of Love, Freeman copied substantial portions of Narell’s Our City: The Jews of San Francisco. We affirm the grant of summary judgment.

BACKGROUND

Our City: The Jews of San Francisco, written by Narell, was published in 1981 by Howell-North Books, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oak Tree Publications. The book details the movement of Jewish immigrants from Europe to California, the creation and development of businesses, involvement in civic and cultural affairs, and family histories and social events. As described in its inside book flap: “Our City is both a stunning social history and penetrating mass biography of the Jewish families who since gold-rush days have left their mark on virtually every facet of Bay Area life [and] is the product of prodigious scholarship....” The large, well-illustrated, annotated book is written in an anecdotal, narrative style, and carries a cover price of $25. In 1986, Narell repurchased the rights to the book and the remaining inventory,…

special concurrence:

Because I conclude that no protected expression was copied, I agree that the district court properly granted summary judgment to the defendants. I therefore concur in Part A of the majority opinion’s discussion.

In my view, this conclusion ends the analysis. We have a solid basis for affirming. It becomes unnecessary to reach the issues of substantial similarity and fair use. Consequently, I respectfully decline to join in the sections of the majority’s opinion addressing these issues.