Judge finds Damon Dash engaged in extensive misconduct throughout course of litigation
By Pat Murphy
BridgeTower Media Newswires
BOSTON — A rap mogul in the crosshairs of a Boston lawyer’s defamation suit is finding courtrooms on the East and West coasts less welcoming than the stages on which his stable of performers have achieved fame and fortune.
Last month, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York ordered Damon Dash and his company, Poppington LLC, to pay $118,000 in attorneys’ fees on a jury’s $30,000 award of statutory damages for copyright infringement in Webber v. Dash. The fee award covers the amounts billed for the 218.3 hours worked on the copyright claim by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Christopher L. Brown. The Boston lawyer represented the Webber plaintiffs while pursuing his own defamation case against Dash in California federal court.
Dash is perhaps best known for co-founding Roc-A-Fella Records in 1996 with rap artist Jay-Z.
In his latest ruling in Webber, U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger decided that an award of fees under the Copyright Act was in order, finding in particular that Dash had engaged in extensive misconduct throughout the course of the litigation.
“Dash’s misconduct during this case has been a repeated flash point,” Lehrburger wrote in his July 14 order. “He has tried to intimidate Plaintiffs’ lawyer, defied court orders, protracted discovery, disrupted attempts to complete his deposition, and repeatedly changed his sworn testimony.”
The judge cited an instance in which Dash interrupted Brown’s attempt to maintain decorum in the course of a November 2019 deposition during which tempers had flared, with the rap mogul telling the attorney, “I’m going to ruin you as a lawyer. You’ll never be a lawyer again. … I’m just giving you rope to hang yourself.”
In Webber, Hollywood director Josh Webber and Muddy Water Pictures alleged that Dash had falsely claimed that he owned the film “Dear Frank.”
In finding Dash liable for defamation in addition to the copyright violation, the jury determined that Muddy Water Pictures, not Dash or his company, was the sole owner of the movie.
The $30,000 in damages for copyright infringement was part of the jury’s total award of $805,000 to the Webber plaintiffs. The fee award does not reflect the time Brown devoted to the plaintiffs’ defamation claim, for which the jury awarded $775,000 in damages.
Brown, the founder of the business and entertainment law firm Brown & Rosen, is pleased with the fees awarded by the court.
“When copyright infringers engage in what, in my opinion, is willful infringement and multiple acts of litigation misconduct, this is the kind of award that you should see,” Brown says. “The [extent] of misconduct that the court identified in its decision surely warranted such an award.”
In the New York case, Dash is represented by Natraj Bhushan of Turturro Law in Brooklyn. Bhushan did not respond to a request for comment prior to deadline.
Meanwhile, Dash’s lawyer in California is trying to pull an “exit, stage left” from two lawsuits against the rap mogul, one of which is set to go to trial on Sept. 6.
First, there’s Brown’s defamation suit against Dash. In Brown v. Dash, filed in the Central District of California, the attorney alleges that Dash made a number of public comments in connection with suits Brown filed on behalf of his clients.
In September 2021, U.S. District Court Judge Dale S. Fischer granted in part and denied in part the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment, later ordering the case to mediation.
In June, defense counsel in Brown v. Dash, Los Angeles attorney Michael S. Traylor, moved to withdraw from the case, stating in an affidavit that “there has been a complete breakdown of communication, respect and professionalism as well as the business relationship between defendants and their counsel. The disagreements and relationship are completely irreconcilable.”
Traylor declines to comment, and the motion to withdraw in Brown v. Dash is currently pending before the court.
Traylor is also seeking to withdraw as Dash’s lawyer in another case in California federal court brought on behalf of another Brown client. In Bunn v. Dash, entertainment industry photographer Monique Bunn alleges she was sexually assaulted by Dash. The case is set for trial next month.
On Aug. 9, U.S. District Court Judge Dolly M. Gee denied Traylor’s motion to withdraw as defense counsel in Bunn, instead ordering him to pay attorney Brown $1,000 as a sanction for his having to respond to “Mr. Traylor’s repeated and late-blooming motion to withdraw.”
Brown isn’t fazed by the latest drama coming from the defense side of the aisle.
“We’re in trial mode,” Brown says. “We have our witnesses ready, willing and lined up to testify. We’re very confident in our position.”
