Bob Dylan sued by former collaborator's wife over catalogue sale

The wife of the late Jaques Levy is suing Bob Dylan for $7.25 million (around €5.97 million). Levy co-wrote 7 of the 9 songs from Dylan's 1976 album Desire, including 'Rita Mae' and 'Isis'.

In December, Dylan made one of the biggest deals in songwriting history – valued at an estimated $300 million – selling the publishing rights to his entire catalogue. The new lawsuit was filed yesterday (January 20th), according to The New York Post. 

The lawsuit claims that Dylan's team has failed to pay 35% of the income owed to Levy's family for the songs he co-wrote. It states further that Dylan's team has "refused to remit to [Levy’s family] their rightful share of the revenue and/or income earned from the catalog Sale with respect to the compositions."

Levy passed away in 2004 and also wrote songs for Carly Simon and The Byrds.

“The Dylan defendants have engaged in a civilly wrong pattern and history of intentionally and maliciously ignoring and disregarding plaintiff’s rights," the suit charges, "including those to income and any and all revenue generated by the compositions, including the subject buy-out of the catalog sale.”

“This lawsuit is a sad attempt to unfairly profit off of the recent catalog sale,” Dylan’s lawyer, Orin Snyder, said in a statement. “The plaintiffs have been paid everything they are owed.”

“We are confident that we will prevail. And when we do, we will hold plaintiffs and their counsel responsible for bringing this meritless case,” Snyder said.