When Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia passed away in 1995, he left behind an extraordinary legacy of music. That music has conceptually inspired countless musicians, but it has also, physically, caused some inheritance issues among Garcia’s many heirs.
Upon Garcia’s passing, a group including Annabelle Garcia-McLean, Clifford Garcia, Heather Garcia Katz, Sunshine May Walker Kesey, Theresa Adams Garcia, the Keelin Garcia Testamentary Trust, and Deborah Koons Garcia, formed the Jerry Garcia Estate LLC. The ties between those Garcia family members became strained over the years and, under judicial supervision, the company was dissolved in 2008. Some of those members then formed a new company, the Jerry Garcia Family LLC, which excluded Jerry’s widow Deborah Koons Garcia.
The legal battle comes from a 2005 agreement with Hollywood Vaults, a storage company that is currently holding the master tapes. They entered a distribution agreement with Garcia Estate LLC years before it dissolved, and now multiple parties are making legitimate claims for the tapes. Jerry Garcia Family LLC is threatening litigation against Hollywood Vaults, but the storage company realizes that, if it hands the tapes over to that group, then they are liable to be sued by Deborah Koons Garcia.
This interesting legal battle mostly harms us, the fans, who won’t get access to these tapes until these debates are settled. We can only hope that the members of Jerry Garcia’s family can resolve this dispute, gratefully.
[H/T Entertainment Law Digest]