After a singer claimed she’d copied his work, newly released court documents show that Mariah Carey has been awarded almost $100,000.00
Per country music crooner Andy Stone’s 2023 claim that Carey’s 1994 mega-hit ‘All I Want for Christmas’ had plagiarized his 1989 song of the same name, in an interview Rolling Stone magazine at the time, the plaintiff’s attorney, Douglas M Schmidt said “If you look at both songs, you can see that about 50 per cent of the words are the same, in almost the same order. I think it’s a pretty strong claim.”
Adding the tracks’ only similarities were a series of “Christmas song cliches” such as the mention of mistletoe and Santa, in March of this year, judge Monica Ramirez Almadini declared the claims baseless.
In lieu of the court’s decision, instead if being awarded the $20,000,000.00 Stone (pka ‘Vince Vance’) requested, he is now instructed to pay Carey $92,000.00 in sanctions after the lawsuit was thrown out.
The substantial penalty was imposed after Almadini described Stone’s case as “egregious” and explained it was particularly large thanks to the plaintiff’s quantity of petty claims, adding:
“Although each incident of sanctionable conduct, in isolation, may not warrant more than a stern reprimand” “it is the aggregate of misconduct reflected in Plaintiffs’ Motion that makes this an egregious situation warranting more severe sanctions.”
Keep up with the latest trending music news by following us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
Author: Saul Goode
Photo: 82nd Academy Awards