UDUAK LAW FIRM

U.S Court of Appeals sides with Tyler Perry to say he did not plagiarize  the work of another.

“TYLER PERRY is breathing a sigh of relief after a U.S. appeals court cleared the filmmaker of accusations he stole the idea for his movie DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN.

Donna West’s case against the actor/screenwriter was dismissed two years ago (08) after jurors in a Texas court found she did not have enough evidence to support her claim that Perry lifted material from her play, Fantasy of a Black Woman, to use in his 2005 blockbuster.

The playwright launched an appeal against the verdict but on Monday (23Aug10), the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled there was no improper conduct in the trial, according to the Associated Press.

West’s play was performed three times in 1991 in Dallas, and she contended Perry could have gained access to the script in 1998 when he presented his plays at the Dallas Black Academy of Arts and Letters.

Perry’s film took in more than $50 million (£33 million) at the box office.” ~AP

There are three general basic courts in most jurisdictions in the USA. There is the trial court. If you’ve watched shows like Law & Order, The Practice, Matlock, Perry Mason, that is a preview of what a trial court looks like. The decisions from the trial court can be appealed. This gets us to the second kind of courts, the Appeals court. The third and final court, generally speaking, is the Supreme Court. Each state has a Supreme Court. Now, independent of the state courts I just mentioned, the exact same replica of courts happen on the federal level. The Supreme Court is the one we are all familiar with on a national level with Justices Sotomayor, among others on the bench.