Plaintiff Broadcast Music, Inc. (“BMI”), a music rights management organization that offers licenses to a massive catalogue of popular songs on behalf of copyright owners, brought suit for copyright infringement against the owners of the La Roue Elayne restaurant for unlicensed performance of live cover versions of eight songs in a single evening. This suit was part of a series of suits brought by BMI for copyright infringement against restaurants in Connecticut. The Court granted summary judgment in favor of BMI for copyright infringement, permanently enjoining further copyright infringement and awarding $6,000 in statutory damages and an additional unspecified amount for attorneys’ fees.
Drew Friedman, the only defendant who appeared in the case, had opposed summary judgment on the grounds that a fact issue remained as to whether he had sufficient control over the restaurant and the cover band to support vicarious liability for copyright infringement. Mr. Friedman claimed to have been cut out of the management and control of La Roue Elayne before the night in question. Interestingly, his failure to object or respond to BMI’s Requests For Admission (RFAs) doomed his opposition. Mr. Friedman never responded to RFAs asking him to admit or deny that he hired the offending cover band and that he had the right to supervise persons employed by the restaurant.
In fact, Mr. Friedman’s opposition failed to address the issue of the ignored RFAs and he never moved for leave to provide untimely responses. On that basis, the Court held that the RFAs must be deemed admitted pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 36. The Court appeared reluctant to deem the RFAs admitted, but indicated that after a diligent search it failed to find any precedent for a sua sponte withdrawal of a represented party’s response to RFAs where the party failed to even acknowledge the existence of the request.
The case is Broadcast Music, Inc. v. The Hub at Cobb’s Mill, LLC. A copy of the Court’s Order is available here.
