The mystery behind the Hall & Oates legal battle has become a bit clearer this week when Daryl Hall filed additional court documents accusing John Oates of leaving him “blindsided” by the “ultimate partnership betrayal” of secretly making moves to sell his half of their joint venture to Primary Wave, a prominent music company that has acquired many iconic music catalogs in recent years.
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As previously mentioned, all of this follows Hall’s private arbitration case against Oates, also filed this month, challenging his partner’s alleged plan to sell his half of their joint venture Whole Oats Enterprises to Primary Wave. Apprehensive that the deal would close before the case was decided, Hall filed the lawsuit, seeking to block the sale with a court order.
The lawsuit originally filed under seal, led to days of speculation about what was going on between the beloved duo, and was unsealed last week revealing the basic details about the proposed sale to Primary Wave and Hall’s objections. However, Wednesday’s latest filings have made things about the bitter dispute even clearer.
As it now seems after the initial vague news of the sealed lawsuit broke, Hall has followed up by filling a declaration (filed Wednesday, November 29) with new revelations, not just about Oates’ so-called “ambush,” but also about the duo’s ongoing “divorce,” regarding Hall’s problems with Primary Wave as well as his personal feelings toward his former partner.
“Respectfully, he must be stopped from this latest wrongdoing and his malicious conduct reined in once and for all,” Hall wrote of Oates.
In his declaration, Hall called Oates’ agreement to sell to Primary Wave a “completely clandestine and bad faith move in blatant violation” of their agreement, which he said clearly requires full consent from both partners. “John Oates and the Co-Trustees engaged in the ultimate partnership betrayal,” Hall wrote. “They surreptitiously sought to sell half of the WOE assets without obtaining my written approval.”
Hall revealed he first learned of the proposed sale to Primary Wave in late October, and that the news left him “blindsided.” Sharing it all came to light as the two were engaged in mediation on other issues and just as he was about to embark on a tour, causing him “tremendous upheaval, harm, and difficulty in my life.”
“I believe that John Oates timed the unauthorized transaction to create the most harm to me,” Hall wrote. Noting he had “no intention of becoming partners with Primary Wave” and that Oates could not “thrust a new partner upon me in this outrageous fashion.”
“The potential of being forced into a partnership with Primary Wave without my consent is incredibly upsetting,” Hall wrote. “There is no amount of money that could compensate me for being forced to partner with an entity that I did not agree to partner with, and whose business model does not comport with my views regarding the WOE assets. The harm is unimaginable."
As indicated, one of Hall’s largest qualms was the idea of granting Primary Wave control over his name and likeness rights – something he called “highly personal assets.”
“Primary Wave is a company that brands itself as having a strong focus on exploiting not only copyrights but the trademarks and name and likeness rights of the artists from whom they purchase catalogue rights,” Hall wrote. “If Primary Wave becomes my partner they… will likely have a goal to use the WOE assets, and my name and likeness, for branding and exploitations.”
Hall also revealed that his former partner had recently become “adversarial and aggressive” and intended to “burden and harass me.” Admitting they began discussing a dissolution of their touring company and other joint ventures, but that Oates never once discussed selling his share in their joint venture and the issue in the case, Whole Oats Enterprises.
“John Oates was very combative and protective with respect to WOE, and consistently conveyed his desire to keep his ownership and that partnership intact and operative—there was never a hint that he would try to ambush me with a sale,” Hall wrote.
The latest filing additionally brought the assets controlled by Whole Oats Enterprises to light, which includes the band’s trademarks, their personal name and likeness rights, record royalty income, and “certain HO social media and related website assets.” While the band’s valuable musical composition copyrights are controlled by Hot Cha Music, LLP, so they are not at issue in the case.
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Hours later, Oates filed his own statement in response, saying he was “tremendously disappointed” that Hall had chosen to make “inflammatory, outlandish, and inaccurate statements about me.” Additionally writing, “I have no idea who or what is motivating Daryl to take these steps and make such salacious statements, but I am deeply hurt.”
While Oates offered fewer details than Hall, his reasoning as he repeatedly said was that he was subject to confidentiality agreements that restricted what he could say. However, he did refute the core accusation about any secret deals that violated his partnership contract.
“I can only say that Daryl’s accusations that I breached our agreement, went ‘behind’ his back, ‘acted in bad faith,’ and the like, are not true,” Oates expressed.