## Facts

- Margaret Morris wrote a nonfiction book, *Jesus Augustus: From Imperial Cult to Christianity*, advancing a theory that Jesus Christ and Rome’s first emperor were the same person.
- Morris entered into an agreement with Atchity Entertainment International under which Atchity would act as her literary manager.
- Years later, Atchity, John Reid, and Sonic Age entered into an agreement with The Writer’s Lifeline to create a novel, *The Ashes of Christ*, based on Morris’s book.
- The development agreement stated it was made on Morris’s behalf and provided that *The Ashes of Christ* would be a “work for hire.”
- The same agreement identified Morris as the novel’s “sole owner.”
- Morris alleged she learned of plans to commercially exploit the novel without her involvement, after which work on the novel stopped.
- Morris filed suit in federal district court asserting copyright infringement and related theories, alleging the novel was specially commissioned as a work made for hire on her behalf.

## Issues

1. Whether California law or Michigan law governed the relevant state-law aspects of the parties’ relationship for purposes of the pleading-stage challenge.
2. Whether Morris plausibly alleged copyright ownership and infringement based on allegations that the novel project was commissioned on her behalf under a written agreement calling it a work made for hire and naming her as sole owner.
3. Whether defendants were entitled to dismissal at the pleading stage of Morris’s other related claims tied to the literary-management and development arrangements.

## Decision

- The court resolved the choice-of-law dispute by applying California law to the contested state-law questions addressed in the motion.
- The court denied dismissal in substantial part, concluding that Morris’s allegations were sufficient at the Rule 12(b)(6) stage for the case to proceed on her core theory that she held rights in the novel project under the alleged work-for-hire/ownership language.
- The court’s order addressed only pleading sufficiency and governing law; it did not finally determine the parties’ ultimate rights or liability.

## Legal Principles

- A federal court exercising supplemental jurisdiction generally applies the forum state’s choice-of-law rules to determine which state’s law governs state-law claims connected to the case.
- On a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the court accepts well-pleaded factual allegations as true and asks whether the complaint states a plausible claim for relief.
- Allegations that a work was specially commissioned under a written agreement designating the work as “made for hire,” and identifying the commissioning party as the owner, can be enough at the pleading stage to support a plausible claim of ownership necessary to pursue copyright infringement.
- At the motion-to-dismiss stage, disputes about the meaning, authority, and legal effect of agreements often cannot be resolved against the plaintiff where the complaint plausibly pleads a contractual basis for ownership or control of the disputed work.

## Conclusion

In *Morris v. Atchity*, the district court addressed an early Rule 12(b)(6) challenge to claims arising from a proposed novel based on Morris’s book and an agreement stating the novel would be a work made for hire owned solely by Morris. Applying California law to the contested state-law issues and crediting Morris’s pleaded ownership theory for pleading purposes, the court allowed the litigation to move forward past the dismissal stage on the central allegations tied to ownership and attempted exploitation of the novel project.


Morris v. Atchity, 2009 WL 463971 (2009)