JACKSON - The Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday reopened litigation over who owns photographs and music of bluesman Robert Johnson.
Last fall, the justices sided with a Leflore County judge who ruled that the late singer's illegitimate son, Claud Johnson, should receive royalties from his father's photographs and music.
On Thursday, the justices ruled the issue should be tried in Leflore County.
Robert Johnson died in Leflore County on Aug. 16, 1938, without leaving a will. Only two photographs of Johnson are known to exist, one known as the "studio portrait" made for Johnson by Hooks Brothers Studios in Memphis, Tenn., and the other referred to as "the dime store portrait" or "the photo booth self portrait" taken by Johnson himself.
Legend has it that Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil for his raw blues talent. He wrote "Me and the Devil Blues," "Crossroads Blues" and "Rambling on My Mind." Eric Clapton's latest album, "Me and Mr. Johnson" is a tribute to the Mississippi bluesman and was nominated this week for a Grammy.
Robert Johnson had two wives, Virginia Travis and Coletta Craft.
Claud Johnson, the son of Virgie Jane Smith, was born out of wedlock in Lincoln County on Dec. 16, 1931. His birth certificate names R.L. Johnson as his father and lists Johnson's occupation as a laborer.
At the time of his death, Carrie Harris Thompson, Robert Johnson's half-sister, held herself out to be Johnson's sole living heir. Thompson took possession of Johnson's photographs.
On Nov. 20, 1974, Thompson signed a contract with promoter Stephen C. LaVere, formerly of Glendale, Calif., and now of Greenwood, to assign all of her purported rights to copyrights of Johnson's work, photographs and any other material concerning Johnson that she might have. In return, LaVere was to pay Thompson 50 percent of all royalties he collected in his efforts to capitalize off Johnson.
Annye C. Anderson and Robert M. Harris laid claim to the royalties through Thompson. Anderson is Thompson's half-sister, but is not related to Robert Johnson. Harris is Thompson's grandson. Anderson and Harris are Thompson's heirs.
After Thompson's death, Claud Johnson found out about his father's estate in the early 1990s and went to court. In 1998, Claud Johnson was declared the musician's sole heir.
Anderson and Harris unsuccessfully challenged Claud Johnson's claim to be sole heir.
After that, Anderson and Harris sued LaVere, Delta Haze Corporation and Sony Music Entertainment, claiming they were willed Thompson's royalties when she died in 1983. Claud Johnson was not a party to the lawsuit.
A Leflore County judge ruled that when Claud Johnson was declared the musician's sole heir, the royalties provided for in the 1974 contract were to go to him.
Presiding Justice Kay Cobb, writing Thursday for the Supreme Court, said there is a legal question about whether the photographs and writings of Robert Johnson were part of the estate at time of the singer's death and therefore the property of Claud Johnson.
Cobb said a trial would determine if the pictures were part of the estate.
"While they (Anderson and Harris) make no claim to the property which belonged to Robert Johnson at his death," Cobb said, "they do claim pictures and a note, all of which they claim were the personal property of Carrie Thompson and not the Johnson estate. There is no evidence that this claim has ever been litigated or that it should have been."
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