Weekend at Bernie's Filmmakers Sue Fox & MGM for Breach of Contract

This past Friday, it was reported that the director and screenwriter for the cult classic, "Weekend at Bernie's" brought a declaratory judgment action in California State Court, claiming that the defendants, Fox and MGM, breached their agreement and failed to provide a proper accounting of the profits garnered from the movie's box office receipts and residuals, costing them millions of dollars.

According to the plaintiffs, their respective contracts guaranteed them a flat fee of the film's proceeds, with one of them to receive a percentage of the movie's net profits, and the other to receive a percentage of its "adjusted gross receipts."

Although I am not privy to the details underlying the lawsuit, I imagine these plaintiffs may have a rather hard time surviving a motion to dismiss for one simple reason:

Their underlying contracts date back to the 1980s.

Consequently, they may have trouble proving that their case isn't barred by California's Statute of Limitations for breach of contract actions.