Beatrice Welles v. Turner Entertainment Company Entertainment Acquisition Company, Inc.
Opinion
Opinion
Gould, J.
Beatrice Welles, the daughter of screenwriter, filmmaker, and actor Orson Welles, filed suit against Turner Entertainment Co., Entertainment Acquisition Co., and other persons not parties to this appeal (collectively, “the defendants”), seeking a declaratory judgment that Beatrice Welles owns the copyright and home video rights to the motion picture Citizen Kane and seeking an accounting of the royalties she alleges she is owed from the profits of the motion picture. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendants. Because there are triable issues of fact, we vacate in part and remand.
I
The district court disposed of this case by summary judgment, so we consider the facts in the light most favorable to Beatrice Welles. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255 , 106 S.Ct. 2505 , 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).
A
Several separate contracts between Or-son Welles, Mercury Productions, Inc. (a production company owned by Orson Welles), and RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. are integral to this case.
On July 22, 1939, Orson Welles, Mercury, and RKO signed two agreements. The first agreement, between Mercury and RKO (the “Production Agreement”), provided that “[RKO]…