Cher has won most of a lawsuit she brought against Sonny Bono’s estate over the royalties from recordings and compositions she co-created in the 1960s and 1970s as part of the duo Sonny & Cher.
The singer behind hits like Believe and If I Could Turn Back Time sued Sonny Bono’s widow, Mary Bono, in 2021, after the estate reportedly declared it was terminating Cher’s 50% share of royalties in Sonny & Cher songs and recordings.
In a final ruling on November 26, Judge John A. Kronstadt of the US District Court for the Central District of California declared that Cher was entitled to the 50% of royalties in perpetuity. The compositions and recordings in question include hits such as I Got You Babe, Baby Don’t Go and The Beat Goes On.
Judge Kronstadt awarded Cher more than $187,000 plus interest for publishing royalties that Mary Bono had withheld in violation of the divorce agreement.
The 50-50 royalty split was part of Cher and Sonny Bono’s divorce agreement, which the two signed in 1978, and it involved all songs they had composed and/or recorded prior to their separation in 1974.
Sonny Bono died in 1998, and his royalties have been collected by a trust administered by his widow Mary Bono.
According to court documents, in 2016, Sonny Bono’s estate notified Cher that they would stop sending her the 50% share of Sonny & Cher royalties, as the heirs were “taking back” her share of the royalties under the US Copyright Act.
The Copyright Act allows the original author of a song to “take back” their copyright from whoever they assigned it to after a set period of time. Works from before 1978 can be taken back after 56 years.
Cher’s lawyers argued that the Copyright Act’s “termination rights” shouldn’t apply to a divorce agreement, and Judge Kronstadt agreed, in effect ruling that the divorce agreement supersedes the Copyright Act.
The Sonny Bono estate’s notice of termination “did not terminate or otherwise have any effect on the August 10, 1978, Marriage Settlement Agreement between [Cher] and Sonny Bono,” the judge wrote in the ruling, which can be read in full here.
A lawyer for Mary Bono told Rolling Stone she plans to appeal the verdict.
The court case also involved a dispute over the administration of the Sonny & Cher royalties. In that matter, Sonny Bono’s heirs scored their one victory, with the judge ruling that Mary Bono has “sole discretion” to decide how the royalties will be administered, including the right to have the royalties administered by an entity owned by the Sonny Bono heirs.
However, Cher has the right to object on issues such as the amount of the administration fee and the competency and qualifications of a proposed administrator.
The judge’s ruling also settled a dispute over how Cher’s royalty split should be handled, given that she sold the rights in her music, including the Sonny & Cher rights, to Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group, in a lump-sum deal that was effective as of July 1, 2022.
Lawyers for Mary Bono argued last year that the deal with Iconic meant the Sonny Bono estate should deal directly with Iconic in paying out royalties owed, but the judge ruled that royalties owed after July 1, 2022, are still legally payable to Cher – though of course Cher is then responsible for passing along those royalties to Iconic.Music Business Worldwide
