Afrobeats superstar David Adeleke, professionally known as Davido has settled the lawsuit filed against him in a New York court by four Nigerian artistes over the theft of their soundtrack, choosing to escape potential exposure that would have come with a trial in the case, according to legal filings sighted by Peoples Gazette.
In April, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan summoned Davido to appear before it within 21 days to answer charges of intellectual property theft in a lawsuit filed by a group of four Nigerian artistes; Martins Chukwuka Emmanuel, Abel Great Umaru, Kelvin Ayodele Campbell and David Ovhioghena Umaru over the theft of their 2022 song, ‘Work.’
Recall that Peoples Gazette reported how the singer refused to pay the musicians $45,000 and was thereafter summoned to New York by a U.S. court https://gazettengr.com/u-s-court-summons-davido-to-new-york-for-stealing-2024-soundtrack-failing-to-pay-45000-debt/
The group accused Davido of stealing the individual recorded instrumental and vocal elements of their song ‘Work,’ which the plaintiffs had given him as part of a potential collaboration. However, Davido went without their permission and recorded his own version of the song titled ‘Strawberry on Ice’ with another artist Emmerson Amidu Bockarie.
Following repeated attempts to settle the matter amicably with Davido failing to honour the agreement to pay the artistes a lump $45,000 before a March 24 deadline for infringing their work, the group was forced to sue the Grammy-nominee in court last month, seeking $150,000 in damages and copyright shares in “Strawberry on Ice.”
With the timeframe to show cause seemingly passed and the possibility of extended trial, court documents confirmed that Davido finally reached a settlement with the group, whom, through their lawyer, subsequently submitted notice of voluntary dismissal before the New York court on May 15 — a motion expected to be granted by the court.
“Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(A)(i) and a settlement reached between the parties herein, Plaintiffs Martins Chukwuka Emmanuel, Abel Great Umaru, Kelvin Ayodeji Campbell, and David Ohioghena Umaru hereby give notice that their claims in the above-captioned action against Defendant David Adedeji Adeleke a/k/a Davido are voluntarily dismissed from this action, with each party to pay their own attorneys’ fees and costs,” the motion read.
