My Family Law office is located in La Jolla California which is a beautiful community continuously connected to Wall Street by high speed Internet connections. Just up the road from my office an epic divorce court battle is taking shape and we will closely follow this case.
This blog posted an article recently regarding Diandra Douglas' attempt to obtain a payment from the profits to Michael Douglas recent release (and success) of the movie Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. When Diandra lost her motion which she filed in New York City, news releases claimed that she had lost in her attempt to obtain her claimed share of the payments to Michael. However, as posted by this blog, she didn't lose a motion. She simply failed to file the motion in the correct court house. The article posted by this blog explained the legal concept of "jurisdiction" which explains which court has the authority and power to issue orders regarding legal claims between litigating parties.
By way of background, Diandra and Michael were married, then divorced in a California family law court. They separated and signed a settlement agreement in the 1990s. Diandra received 50% of the community property in the divorce settlement. When Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps was released in 2010, Diandra claimed that this movie was so related to the 1987 original that she was entitled to 50% of the funds received by Michael from the 2010 movie. As a San Diego Certified Family Law Specialist attorney I work with concepts of community property, separate property, and jurisdiction on a daily basis. The news reports were wrong. Diandra didn't lose her motion; her motion was dismissed in New York as the court in which she filed the motion, didn't have jurisdiction to resolve this issue.
Just this week, the news reports stated that Diandra is looking for lawyers to re-file this motion in a California court. This blog predicts that she will file. Her decision to file in New York was unsuccessful; however it showed her determination regarding this issue. While research does not disclose the amount of the income to Michael from Money Never Sleeps, all sources agree that it is significant amount.
Under California community property law, 50% of all community property belongs to Diandra. The theory of Diandra’s case is that the first Wall Street movie created rights which were owned one-half by her. Even though the second movie was released in 2010, the movie is a spin-off from the first movie (which was created during the marriage). Michael’s argument is basically that he didn’t own the first movie; he didn’t own the name of the movie. He was simply paid for his work. His work in the second movie, despite the similar movie name, was performed after the divorce and the income is not income in which Diandra holds any community property right.
The San Diego divorce attorneys at the Law Office of Thomas M. Huguenor handle family law cases with support, custody, property divisions and other, family law, issues.
