Missy Elliott reaches last-minute settlement in songwriting suit

PHILADELPHIA (CN) — Minutes before jury selection was set to begin in a Philadelphia federal courtroom, a settlement was reached between rapper Missy Elliott and a former collaborator who claimed the emcee deprived him of credits on several songs the two purportedly wrote together in the 1990s.

Producer Terry Williams had sought a trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, claiming in his complaint that he and Melissa “Missy” Elliott co-wrote four songs that appeared on 1994’s “All the Sistas Around Da World,” the sole album released by Elliott’s short-lived R&B group Sista. While a commercial failure — it was shelved shortly after its release and was only rereleased in 2017 — the album marked Elliott’s first official release, as well as her first collaborations with then-unknown producer Timbaland.

Elliot had refuted Williams’ claims, asserting in court documents that she didn’t meet Williams until after the release of “All the Sistas Around Da World.”

After both parties failed to reach an agreement Thursday night, U.S. District Judge Nitza Quiñones Alejandro appeared to broker the settlement Friday morning during a sidebar, just minutes before a deputy clerk led 38 jurors into the courtroom.

While both parties declined to comment on the settlement, an attorney for Elliott told Courthouse News that a forthcoming court order will provide further details. The arrangement is anticipated to close out what has become a nearly seven-year legal saga spanning four jurisdictions.

Williams originally filed his suit against Elliott, Timbaland, the estate of deceased singer Aaliyah Haughton and four record labels — Atlantic Records, Elektra Records, Warner Music Group and Reservoir Media — in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in November 2018. In his original suit, Williams also claimed that he and Elliott co-wrote Aaliyah’s record “Heartbroken,” a track on the singer’s 1996 album “One in a Million.”

Within a month of filing, Williams’ case was transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, as copyright disputes involving co-authorship present a federal question.

In May 2019, following disagreements between Williams and his counsel, Williams’ attorney withdrew from the case. Williams continued to pursue his claims pro se.

In March 2020, Quiñones severed and transferred Williams’ claims against the record labels to U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, noting that all of the labels are incorporated in Delaware and lack any meaningful connection to Pennsylvania.

In July 2021, Quiñones dismissed Williams’ claims against Timbaland for lack of personal jurisdiction, as the latter producer lives in Florida and has no property or business in Pennsylvania. However, by September 2021, Williams had filed a separate suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, naming Timbaland as the sole defendant.

Williams’ claims against both the record labels and Timbaland were stayed pending the resolution of the case against Elliott.

Quiñones further limited Williams’ claims in Pennsylvania federal court in August 2024, when the Barack Obama appointee ruled that the three-year statute of limitations had passed regarding Williams’ copyright claims for “Heartbroken.” While Williams could have reasonably missed the Sista record’s release prior to it being shelved, he had ample opportunity to discover Aaliyah’s “One in a Million,” which has sold 8 million copies, Quiñones ruled.

“Considering the success of Aaliyah’s ‘One in a Million’ album, on which ‘Heartbroken’ was released, and Williams’ work in the music industry after the album’s release, including with Elliott, a reasonable person in Williams’ position would have been on notice of the use of his Unpublished Song in the purportedly derivative song ‘Heartbroken’ by Aaliyah,” Quiñones wrote in her ruling.

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