Writer-director William Richert has sued the Writers Guild of America West over its practice of collecting foreign levies for writers who aren't WGA members.
Richert, whose credits include "Winterkills," "The Man in the Iron Mask" and "A Night in the Life of Johnny Reardon," alleged in the action that the WGA began making foreign collections in 1991 on monies due to copyright holders such as taxes on video rentals or purchases of blank videocassettes and DVDs.
The suit, filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges the WGA has no authority to collect the funds for non-members, hasn't communicated that information to the affected writers and hasn't paid them. Richert, who asserts he's no longer a WGA member, is seeking class-action status for the suit and asserting the allegations cover at least 1,000 writers.
"In the case of Richert and other non-members of the union, WGA has not obtained from them the right to collect such monies, nor informed them it has collected such monies nor paid out such monies," the suit alleges.
WGA officials said the suit was without merit.
WGA West president Daniel Petrie Jr. told
Daily Variety that the guild's authority to collect the funds for non-members stems from the initial agreements it struck in the late 1980s with the collection agencies. He asserted that those agencies, as a condition of signing the agreements, insisted the WGA handle funds for all U.S. writers.
The WGA currently has $19 million in foreign levies in its accounts and another $4 million of undeliverable funds from the levies. Org took in $5.6 million last year and dispersed $7.9 million; officials aim to disperse $10 million this year.
Suit, which seeks unspecified damages, notes that the WGA has been keeping 5% of all foreign monies collected. The WGA West publicly disclosed the fee in June in its annual report to members.
Contact Dave McNary at
dave.mcnary@variety.com