'Que Sera, Sera' copyrights belong with composer's daughter after family feud

CINCINNATI (CN) — The daughter of composer Jay Livingston, most famous for “Que Sera, Sera” and “Silver Bells,” properly filed copyright termination notices to remove ownership interest from her father’s corporation, a Sixth Circuit panel held in a ruling that shuts out the Livingston family trust.

A three-judge appellate panel upheld a previous ruling from U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr., a Barack Obama appointee, by determining Monday that Tammy Livingston, the composer’s granddaughter, could not invalidate the termination notices to recoup royalty payments.

The tangled web of family litigation spans over two decades and involves Travilyn — Jay’s daughter, only child and the owner of Jay Livingston Music Inc. — and Tammy, who filed the underlying lawsuit in federal court in 2022.

It began over 20 years ago in 2003 when a California probate court determined that the Livingston family trust held no ownership interest in any of the composer’s copyrights, which had been transferred prior to Jay death’s to Jay Livingston Music Inc.

Years after the probate proceedings, Travilyn filed termination notices in 2015 to revoke copyright ownership of “Que Sera, Sera” and 31 other songs from the company and revert the rights back to herself as the sole descendant of her parents.

These terminations were the genesis of Tammy’s lawsuit, argued before the appeals court in December 2024.

In Monday’s ruling, the court emphatically rejected all of Tammy’s arguments.

U.S. Circuit Judge Chad Readler, a Donald Trump appointee, emphasized the 2003 probate court rulings have a preclusive effect on Tammy’s current suit and prevent her from raising issues that have or could have been decided in a previous lawsuit.

“The specific ‘harm’ that Tammy purportedly has ‘suffered’ is that the family trust, of which she is a beneficiary, has been deprived of its rightful ownership of the copyrights. Yet that ‘claim’ is ‘identical’ to the one decided in the 2003 California probate order,” Readler wrote.

“That order, again, declared that the family trust held no ownership interests in copyrights to Jay’s compositions and that Jay Livingston Music Inc. owned the copyrights through the popular songwriters agreements. All of this means that — contrary to Tammy’s assertion — the family trust did not hold the copyright interests in Jay’s songs at the time Travilyn filed her termination notices,” he added.

Tammy argued that regardless of the trust’s ownership in copyright interests, the termination notices filed by her mother were invalid because the initial grants made by Jay Livingston during his lifetime failed to comply with federal copyright guidelines.

Readler and the other judges on the panel swiftly rejected this idea.

“According to Tammy, because Jay signed the May 2000 agreement as a ’trustee,’ he never ’executed’ any copyright ‘grant’ as an ‘author,’ rendering the termination notices Travilyn filed ineffective. We can make quick work of this argument because Jay signed the May 2000 agreement as an individual,” Readler said.

Undeterred, Tammy claimed the copyright grant to “Que Sera, Sera” could not be terminated by Travilyn because Jay essentially assigned it to himself when he transferred ownership to his sole proprietorship, Jay Livingston Music Inc.

Once again, Readler cut off the argument at its knees and reminded Tammy that “the record shows that Travilyn owned Jay Livingston Music at that point.”

In a last-ditch effort to salvage her case, Tammy argued that notices published by Travilyn at the time she terminated the copyright interests failed to comply with federal guidelines and omitted critical information about the songs, but the panel remained unconvinced.

Readler sided with Crenshaw and determined the lack of specific accusations in Tammy’s initial complaint for each of the 32 notices forfeited her right to supplement the record at this stage to prove her claims.

Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Eugene Siler Jr., a George H.W. Bush appointee, and U.S. Circuit Judge Eric Clay, a Bill Clinton appointee, rounded out the panel and joined in Readler’s opinion.

Neither party immediately responded to requests for comment.

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