22 A.D.2d 778 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1964
Order, entered on April 30, 1964, unanimously reversed, on the law, with $30 costs and disbursements to defendánts-appéllants, and motion to dismiss complaint granted, with $10 costs, with leave tó plaintiff to serve an amended complaint within 20 days after service of copy Of order heréón with notice of entry, The complaint does not comply With the CPLR requirement that the “ Statements in a pleading shall be sufficiently particular to give the court and parties notice of the transactions, occurrences, or Series of transactions or occurrences, intended to be proved and the material elements Of each cause of action,” (CPLR 3013;- see Foley v, D’Agostino, 21 A D 2d 601 cf. Shapolsky v, Shapolsky, 22 A D 2d 91.) The plaintiff contends that it has “common-law property rights” in a certain motion picture film; that the defendants “have illegally misappropriated” such rights in the matter of the telecast of segments of such film without plaintiff’s Consent. The plaintiff’s alleged rights, according to its complaint, aré' grounded upon the alleged acquisition by it under a written agreement with a third person of the “sole and exclusive right, license and privilege to distribute, exhibit, license for subdistribution, lease, and otherwise exploit” the motion picture “by means of television broadcasts thereof throughout the United States, Hawaii, and Porto Rico Of course, the tinture and extent-of the rights acquired by plaintiff by virtue of the said alleged written agreement Would depend upon -the title and rights possessed by the licensor in the particular motion picture, but the complaint doés not purport to show what they were, if any. The decisions of Fisher v. Star Co. (231 N, Y, 414) and International News Serv. v. Associated Press (248 U. S. 215) cited by Special Term, will not sustain the complaint-.- The plaintiff does not claim that the story or the sound track used in the motion picture film was authored or created by the plaintiff or by" its licensor, or that the film itself was created, arranged or Originally produced by the plaintiff Or by its licensor, and