Limp Bizkit has chalked up a loss in its lawsuit against Universal Music Group.
The band sued the company last year, claiming that it owes them over $200 million in royalties and arguing that they therefore have the right to terminate their contract in a legal move called a “rescission.” However, in a decision on Jan. 17 obtained by ABC News, Judge Percy Anderson ruled that the band has no right to do so.
The judge found that UMG actually had paid Limp Bizkit “millions in advances” on the royalties that the band was expected to earn, and that UMG had also ponied up “substantial sums” to produce and distribute their recordings, as required in the contract.
The opinion states, “The alleged failure to pay royalties does not constitute a total failure of performance,” and that means that currently, with the way the lawsuit is worded, Limp Bizkit doesn’t have the grounds to request rescission of their contracts.
The judge did leave an opening for Limp Bizkit’s lawyers to amend their claim, though he said he’d be wary of canceling the contract because “millions in royalties were advanced and paid under decades-old agreements.”
According to Billboard, if Limp Bizkit is unable to rescind the contracts, that would also mean that its other claim — that the record label infringed their copyrights — couldn’t succeed. And if that doesn’t succeed, the entire case would have to be refiled in state court, because only federal courts have jurisdiction over copyright claims.