Judge John Keenan
Khaldei, daughter and heir of the late World War II photographer Evgeny Khaldei, alleged that before his 1997 death, Evgeny entered into an agency agreement with Kaspiev who would act as Evgeny’s worldwide agent for 20 years for the “promotion and sale of photographs produced for sale from the negatives.” A day later, Evgeny entered into a licensing agreement with Corbis, a digital archive that licenses images to third parties. Among other provisions, the Corbis agreement called for Evgeny, Kaspiev and Corbis to select images for licensing and for Evgeny to transport the original negatives they selected to Corbis, which would return them to Evgeny after scanning them. Despite the licensing agreement’s provision to the contrary, Kaspiev instructed Corbis to return the negatives directly to him. In dispute are the negatives returned to Kaspiev by Corbis, as well as photographs given by Khaldei to Kaspiev in 1997. Kaspiev stated that he is entitled to 50 percent of the royalties arising from the Corbis licensing agreement. The court denied entry of summary judgment without prejudice, finding that if Khaldei ultimately prevails in showing that Kaspiev is liable for damage to the materials, that may bar recovery by Kaspiev of continued royalties.
