Different Circles

“The timeline doesn’t matter,” Pauline said. “The Supreme Court of both California and the United States itself routinely accept precedents that were set back in the 1800s. And remember, this is only the first brief. There are thirteen more of them, all having to do with the subject of having terms of a first contract being dependent on the terms of an unsigned second contract. You people were not the first ones to think of this particular scam.” She picked up the second brief in her stack and held it up. “Warner vs Stanchion, 1958. Warner signed a contract that said he would provide landscaping services for Stanchion, who owned a collection of little league and other amateur athletic fields in San Diego county. Stanchion also owned a chain of nursery supply stores. The contract stipulated that the landscaping contract was in breach of contract if Warner did not agree to and sign a fertilizer supply contract with Stanchion for the fulfillment of the first contract. Again, the case went to court and the jury found in favor of the plaintiff. And, again, the case was appealed, this time to the Fourth District, and, again, the ruling was overturned. The precedent set in Growling vs Cavanaugh was specifically cited in the ruling. And, again, the initial contract was ruled valid and in effect for all but the secondary contract clause.”

“Please tell me that she is making all of this up, Frowley,” Doolittle said.

“Are you calling me a liar?” Pauline asked, as if deeply wounded (though she kept the smile on her face).

“Are you?” he challenged.

“I am not,” she said simply. “I have every confidence that Mr. Frowley will verify all of my briefs.”

“And charge you for the time it took to complete the research,” Jake added.

“Naturally,” said Nerdly.

“How much you charge these fucks an hour, Frowley?” Matt asked. “Like six hundred bones or some shit like that?”

“It’s a lot more than that,” Doolittle said sourly.

“Damn, homey,” Matt said, looking at the lawyer with something that resembled respect. “No wonder you whore yourself out to these assholes.”

“Should I go over the other precedents,” asked Pauline, “or do you get the point?”

“I’ll look them over on my own time,” Frowley said through clenched teeth.

“You do that,” Pauline said. “You will find that they are all quite relevant to the case of National Records vs KVA Records, should such a case ever be filed. You will find that in each case, the ruling upheld the original contract as valid while giving no responsibility to the defendant to uphold the clause regarding the second contract. And you will find no precedents under California contract law—which is what we are dealing with here—in which a contract that was dependent on an unnegotiated and unsigned second contract was held to be valid on final appeal.”

“In other words,” Matt said, “another round goes to the band, motherfuckers! To the fuckin’ band!”

“Again, well put, Matt,” Pauline said. “Now, on that note, we’ll call an end to the meeting for today. We will give you a week to peruse these briefs and draw the conclusions you need to draw. We will come back next Friday at 2:00 PM. At that point, we will enter good faith negotiations for a touring contract for Matt and Celia. And when we do so, please keep in mind that we are perfectly free to sign with any other entity for such a contract and that with Celia, we do not even have to pay you for the performance rights.”

And with that, the KVA team and Matt Tisdale stood and left the office. They walked out of the building with smiles on their faces, knowing they had won.

Chapter 25: The Naughty Nanny

Santa Clarita, California

May 23, 1998

It was the Friday that kicked off the start of the Memorial Day weekend. Celia and her band had worked an eight-hour day in their new tour rehearsal warehouse, as they had done every day since the facility was handed over to them for their use the previous Monday. Under the terms of the tour agreement they had finally signed with National Records two weeks before, KVA was paying for the lease on the facility, the catering, and the salaries of all the musicians, but National was footing the bill for renting or buying all the tour equipment and for training up the roadies and techies who would be running the shows. National would also pay for the venue rentals when the tour actually started, and half of the transportation and personnel costs involved in moving the tour from city to city. In return, National would collect half of all ticket revenue and the other half would go to KVA. It was not the deal that KVA or National had hoped for, but it was what they finally agreed upon over six long days of negotiations.