The Association of Talent Agents (ATA) has reported to its members a list of three arbitrations between actors and agents decided so far this year.
The most recent decision, reported in mid-August, involved an arbitrator ruling in favor of an actor in a breach-of-fiduciary case. The ATA's reports don't include names of actors or agents unless the case is held publicly before the California Labor Department, but the case reviews do provide insights into legal problems actors and agents have encountered in their business relationships.
The Aug. 12 report involved an actor and agent's one-year SAG talent-agency agreement signed in 2000. During the term of the contract, the agent "secured a four-year series contract for the actor." At the first season's end, the actor instructed the employer to stop sending checks to the agent and to pay the actor directly. However, the agent didn't receive a written rescission of the check authorization. The actor quit paying the agent commissions with the start of the second season. The agent eventually responded by sending the employer a pre-signed check authorization. When the employer sent the next check to the agent, the agent deducted all commissions from seven episodes for which the actor hadn't paid, sending the actor the balance.
The actor complained, resulting in the arbitrator to rule in the actor's favor. According to the ATA report, the arbitrator quoted SAG regulations within the contract that stated, "No actor or agent shall attach, garnish, or levy on the funds or property of the other party in any dispute or controversy arising out of or in connection with an agency contract."
That led the arbitrator to write, "If use of the legal process of attachment is barred by the SAG regulations, the 'remedy' utilized here was even more clearly improper." The arbitrator ruled the agent must return all the funds, plus interest, and had lost the right to obtain future commissions from the series.
Agent Free of Fault
A June report covered an undated case involving SAG's TV commercials contract. The arbitrator found the agent free from fault in not sending the actor notice of the actor's spot-contract expiration and need for renegotiation. Although the agent is obligated to send such notice, the arbitrator said the actor "admitted that he was aware of his right to renegotiate and received notice of the applicable expiration dates independent of the requisite expiration notice." The arbitrator also noted that the actor was receiving payment directly from the employer rather than through the agent.
The other actor case reported by the ATA came in an April 2003 review. It involved the California Labor Department voiding a personal manager's contract with a Spanish-language voice-over artist, calling it "illegal and void from its inception." The Labor ruling instructed the personal manager -- Piedad Bonilla -- to pay actor Edgar Francisco Jimenez Garcia $1,938.67 in commissions.