Hendrix Family Wins Legal Battle

HENDRIX FAMILY WINS LEGAL BATTLE:

Jimi Hendrix’s family won an injunction at the High Court on Friday barring a New York-based music production company from releasing recordings on which the singer and guitarist performed.

Experience Hendrix, the family firm that controls the rights to all Hendrix’s work except some early recordings, sued PPX Enterprises over recordings the then little-known guitar virtuoso made with the group Curtis Knight and The Squires in PPX’s New York studios.

Experience Hendrix said PPX failed to pay royalties on the works and had authorized the release of records without licenses, in contravention of a 1973 agreement with the English administrator of Hendrix’s estate.

Judge Justice Roger Buckley granted an injunction restraining the future release or licensing of recordings on which Hendrix performed, apart from 33 master tapes to which Experience Hendrix agreed PPX was entitled.

Buckley ruled that PPX must account for royalties due on those 33 tapes in the future, but not in the past. He rejected demands that PPX hand over the master tapes and pay an unspecified amount in damages.

He said PPX must pay 70 percent of Experience Hendrix’s legal bill, starting with an interim payment of $112,500.

PPX argued it had an oral agreement with Experience Hendrix entitling it to every master tape it had previously released or licensed. It was granted permission to appeal.

Hendrix rose to prominence in the late 1960s with hits including “Purple Haze,” “Hey Joe” and “Voodoo Chile.” In 1970, he died of a drug overdose in London at 27.

Lawyer Nick Valner, who represented Experience Hendrix, said of the ruling: “This is a great day for the Hendrix family and represents the culmination of years of heavily fought litigation.”

No one was immediately available for comment at PPX.

Courtesy of The Associated Press