Bad Bunny is asking a court to order record label emPawa Africa to pay $465,612 in legal fees after he triumphed in a copyright case over his Un Verano Sin Ti track “Enséñame a Bailar.”
The lawsuit was filed last May by the Nigerian producer Dera (Ezeani Chidera Godfrey), who alleged the song included an uncleared sample of a 2019 track he produced for the artist Joeboy, “Empty My Pocket.” After Godfrey failed to appear at a Feb. 5 discovery hearing and missed a March 6 filing to continue the case, however, the presiding judge dismissed the suit on March 9.
The blown deadline and missed hearing came after Godfrey’s lawyers withdrew from the case in January, citing “irreparable differences” over legal strategies (per Billboard). Godfrey’s label, emPawa Africa, was dismissed as a plaintiff from the case in February for also missing deadlines.
In a motion filed on Monday, March 23, and obtained by Rolling Stone, Bad Bunny’s attorneys stated that the case was “meritless from the beginning and should never have been brought.” They argued that “Empawa filed and aggressively litigated it, apparently hoping that Bad Bunny’s wealth, prominence, and desire to avoid attorneys’ fees and bad publicity would enable Empawa to extract an undeserved, multimillion-dollar settlement.”
The Puerto Rican artist’s legal team reiterated that the sample was obtained with permission from Lakizo Entertainment, which had distributed the song at one point. His lawyers claimed that when the label was asked to present evidence in the discovery process, emPawa Africa made “frivolous objections” and stalled. Ultimately, the motion states that an ex parte application was filed by the label’s counsel to withdraw from the case and emPawa Africa abandoned the suit rather “than hire new counsel and respond to the discovery.”
“When faced with an imminent court order that would require it to explain how it owned Empty and Lakizo did not, Empawa chose instead to abandon its claims altogether,” read Monday’s motion. “That it did not find a replacement counsel to prosecute its claims after its original counsel withdrew speaks volumes.”
Bad Bunny’s team claimed that the label attempted to “confuse the public about” the singer’s “integrity and the true ownership of ‘Enséñame.'” His lawyers argued that without an award of the requested attorney’s fees, emPawa Africa will “suffer no consequence — and Moving Defendants will have been penalized substantially — as a result of Empawa’s decision to file and pursue this meritless lawsuit in disregard of the facts.”
Bad Bunny is not seeking a fee award from Godfrey, who was a plaintiff in the lawsuit. A footnote in the motion elaborates on the decision: “It is Moving Defendants’ belief that this co-plaintiff, Ezeani Chidera Godfrey p/k/a Dera, was not primarily responsible for the prosecution of the lawsuit, nor did he finance the lawsuit.”
Reps for Bad Bunny and emPawa Africa did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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