The Lost Supreme: The Life of Dreamgirl Florence Ballard (29 page)

E
xcerpts from
F
lorence
B
allard’s
L
egal
C
ase
c b) At no time during the signing of the said agreements and during her professional career with Defendants Motown and International was Miss Ballard ever represented by an attorney of her own choosing and was in fact, instructed by Defendant Berry Gordy, Jr. not to do so; c) Miss Ballard never read any of the said agreements, nor, with her limited experience in such matters, would she have understood the content therein, if she had read them . . .

39. . . . Defendant Diana Ross . . . held herself out as a partner to Miss Ballard.

40. During sometime in late 1967, and on diverse times thereafter, the Defendants herein, their servants and agents, in conspiracy with each other, secretly, subversively and maliciously planned and plotted and took steps to oust Miss Ballard from the Supremes. . . .

41. During the latter part of 1967, Miss Ballard began to realize that the harmonious relationship existing between the members of the Supremes was beginning to deteriorate and Miss Ballard became the constant subject of unjustified and unwarranted criticism from Defendants Diana Ross and Berry Gordy, Jr., regarding her professional performance as a female vocalist with the Supremes.

. . .

42. During the latter part of 1967, Miss Ballard was repeatedly told by Defendant Berry Gordy, Jr. that she was not singing properly and that her performances were having ill-effects upon the general quality of performance of the Supremes.

43. Sometime during the latter portion of 1967, while the Supremes were performing in Las Vegas, Nevada, Defendant Berry Gordy, Jr. advised Miss Ballard that she could not perform with the said group because she was not singing well.

44. At all times that Defendant Berry Gordy, Jr. and Defendant Diana Ross were representing to Miss Ballard that her performances were affecting the Supremes adversely, Defendant Berry Gordy, Jr. and Defendant Diana Ross were secretly conspiring and plotting to oust Miss Ballard from the Supremes. . . .

45. At all times that Defendant Berry Gordy, Jr. was representing to Miss Ballard that she wasn’t performing in a professional manner with the Supremes, he and Defendant Diana Ross were secretly planning to oust Miss Ballard from the Supremes and replace her with one Cindy Birdsong.

46. At all times that Defendants Berry Gordy, Jr. and Diana Ross, their servants and agents, were secretly conspiring to wrongfully oust Miss Ballard from the Supremes, Miss Ballard had valid and binding contracts with Defendants Motown and International regarding her relationship with the Supremes.

47. At all times that Defendants Berry Gordy, Jr. and Diana Ross made representations to Miss Ballard that her singing performance with the Supremes was not 190

b

E
xcerpts from
F
lorence
B
allard’s
L
egal
C
ase
well enough professionally and their representations that Miss Ballard’s singing performances with the Supremes were having adverse effects upon the group, Defendants Berry Gordy, Jr. and Diana Ross knew that the said representations were false and fraudulent. . . .

48. . . . For a period of two and a half years, from 1964 to 1967, the Supremes became the top female vocal group in the United States and elsewhere and their records began selling at a phenomenal rate. . . .

53. . . . During 1967, the Supremes were selling over 750,000 phonograph records per month. . . .

54. During 1964 through 1967, while Miss Ballard and the Supremes were selling records at a phenomenal rate, Miss Ballard was without knowledge of the amount and the extent of monies and royalties that she was entitled to, although Defendants Motown, International, Berry Gordy, Jr., their agents and servants knew the exact amount that Miss Ballard was entitled to at that particular time and they also knew that she was entitled to vast amounts of money in the form of future royalties, earnings, and other monies.

55. During the same period of time from 1964 to 1967, the group name

“Supremes” had established goodwill that was valued well in excess of One Million Dollars.

56. . . . the Defendants, their servants and agents, in furtherance of their conspiracy to fraudulently and wrongfully remove and oust Miss Ballard from the Supremes, purposefully, maliciously, subversively, fraudulently and wrongfully concealed from Miss Ballard the extent and amounts of personal properties and monies that the corporate Defendants International and Motown had possession of belonging to Miss Ballard; the Defendants also purposefully concealed from Miss Ballard the enormous extent of the vast amounts of monies that Miss Ballard was entitled to in the form of future royalties and earnings from the sales of . . . single records and albums. . . .

57. The Defendants, their servants and agents were familiar with the music business and in particular the record and management business, while knowing that Miss Ballard was inexperienced and completely unaware of the final and business aspects of the music business. The Defendants also knew that Miss Ballard would rely upon their representations. . . .

59. On or about July of 1967, the Defendants . . . in furtherance of their conspiracy to oust Miss Ballard from the Supremes . . . dispatched Michael Roshkind to travel from New York City. . . to Detroit with instructions to contact Miss Ballard and to induce her to sign certain papers allowing the Defendants to remove her from the Supremes.

191

E
xcerpts from
F
lorence
B
allard’s
L
egal
C
ase
c 60. In furtherance of said conspiracy, on or about the month of July, 1967, Defendant Michael Roshkind arrived in Detroit and checked into a hotel known as the Northland Inn . . . that after arriving at the hotel, Defendant Michael Roshkind summoned Miss Ballard to meet with him.

61. On or about July 28, 1967, Miss Ballard went to the said hotel to meet with Defendant Michael Roshkind . . . Roshkind fraudulently represented that she was not entitled to receive any monies from Defendants Berry Gordy, Jr., International, Diana Ross or Motown in the form of present monies or future royalties or earnings; he also represented to Miss Ballard that her performances with the Supremes were having adverse effects upon the group’s popularity and that it would be in “everyone’s” best interest for her to allow the Defendants to remove Miss Ballard from the group; in a further attempt to fraudulently and falsely induce Miss Ballard to allow the Defendants to remove her from the Supremes . . . Roshkind represented to Miss Ballard that Defendant Motown would pay Miss Ballard $2,500 per year for six years for allowing the Defendants to remove Miss Ballard from the Supremes; Defendant Michael Roshkind also represented to Miss Ballard that none of the Defendants had any present or future obligations to her, financial or otherwise, and the Defendants were doing her a benevolent favor by offering her $2,500 for the next six years.

62. . . . Miss Ballard was fraudulently induced to sign the document. . . .

63. At the time that Defendant Michael Roshkind was making the said false and fraudulent representations to Miss Ballard, he knew that Miss Ballard had none of her monies in her possession and that her monies were under the exclusive control of the Defendants and that Miss Ballard was merely receiving a meager allowance from the Defendants.

64. Thereafter, Miss Ballard retained an attorney who then contacted the Defendants concerning the Supplemental Agreement; the Defendants, their servants and agents then had discussions and negotiations with Miss Ballard’s attorney from August 1967 to February 1968 regarding the setting aside of the . . . agreement and replacing it with another; however, during all of this period of time the Defendants, their servants and agents, successfully concealed their conspiracy to wrongly, maliciously and unlawfully oust Miss Ballard from the Supremes from both Miss Ballard and her attorney.

65. On or about the 22nd day of February 1968, the Defendants completed their last substantive and substantial act in furtherance of their conspiracy to fraudulently oust Miss Ballard from the Supremes by having her enter into a purported general release agreement removing her from the Supremes and paying 192

b

E
xcerpts from
F
lorence
B
allard’s
L
egal
C
ase
her meager and grossly inadequate sums of monies as it related to her various rights.

66. During all the . . . period of the time of the conspiracy to oust Miss Ballard from the Supremes . . . Defendants, their servants and agents repeatedly represented to Miss Ballard that her professional performances were no longer the high caliber of the other two Supremes . . . that Miss Ballard’s performances with the Supremes were having and would continue to have adverse effects upon the general performance of the Supremes and upon the caliber and standard of the Supremes’ performances and was and would adversely affect the general public’s acceptance of the group and the sale of the phonograph records; Defendants, their servants and agents knew that these representations were false and fraudulent; the said representations were made with the malicious intent that Miss Ballard would rely upon the same, which Miss Ballard did; the intent and purpose of these representations was in furtherance of the . . . conspiracy to maliciously, wrongfully and fraudulently oust Miss Ballard from the Supremes.

67. Miss Ballard was not able to uncover the true nature of the malicious conspiracy to oust her from the Supremes until the latter part of 1968.

68. This conspiracy violated the laws of the State of Michigan and has succeeded in causing irreparable damage to Miss Ballard and the public.

69. As a consequence of the conspiracy to oust Miss Ballard from the Supremes and to wreck and destroy her professional career, Miss Ballard has suffered damage to her non-entertainment and business interests, damage to her ability to receive fees from product endorsements and publicity appearances, damages to her professional career as a female vocalist, and other damages, all in excess of One and One-half Million Dollars. . . .

94. On diverse occasions . . . Defendant Motown, its servants and agents, maliciously and intentionally failed to devote to Miss Ballard’s career the same degree and extent of promotion, exploitation, sales efforts and advertisement consistent to what Defendants provided and undertook for Defendant Diana Ross.

95. During the existence of said agreement, Defendant Motown, its servants and agents, maliciously and intentionally, has failed and continue to fail and refuse to account, to make proper and adequate payment of monies due and owing to Miss Ballard as required under the recording agreement.

96. Defendant Motown failed and/or refused to permit Miss Ballard the right to inspect and/or audit Defendant’s books and records as the said books and records pertained to monies that Miss Ballard was entitled to receive pursuant to said recording agreement. . . . Defendant Motown has failed and/or refused to furnish proper and required accounting statements of the monies that Miss 193

E
xcerpts from
F
lorence
B
allard’s
L
egal
C
ase
c Ballard was entitled to receive pursuant to the terms and conditions of said agreement.

97. Defendant Motown has refused, and continuously refused during the time of the existence of the said agreement, up to and including the time of the filing of this complaint to pay over monies due and owing to Miss Ballard from the sale of tapes and cartridges mechanically reproduced from master recordings embodying Miss Ballard’s performance.

98. . . . Defendant Motown from 1964 until the present time has received over $10,000,000.00 from the sale of tapes and other cartridges embodying reproductions of musical compositions of the “Supremes” and Miss Ballard.

99. Defendant Motown from the year 1964 to the present has rendered false and fraudulent accounts to Miss Ballard grossly understating the royalties belonging to her.

100. On information and belief, Defendant Motown from 1964 to the present time has fraudulently, falsely and excessively overcharged Miss Ballard for the cost of arrangements, copying, accompaniments and other costs relating to each master recording embodying Miss Ballard’s performances.

101. . . . Defendant Motown, its servants and agents from 1964 to the present time have secretly concealed from Miss Ballard the true costs and charges properly allocable to herself by Defendant Motown.

102. Defendant Motown fraudulently and falsely and excessively offset said costs referred to hereof in the cause of action and wrongly offset said costs against royalties, earnings and other monies properly due and belonging to Miss Ballard.

103. During the same period of time . . . Defendant Motown and Miss Ballard agreed that she was to receive certain compensations for making television and radio commercials.

104. . . . Defendant Motown failed to pay unto Miss Ballard the proper sums of monies that she was entitled to receive pursuant to the services she rendered. . . .

105. That at the time of the execution of the said agreement and during all of the time of its existence up to and including the time of the filing of this complaint, Defendant Motown agreed to grant foreign licenses for the purpose of manufacturing and selling phonograph records embodying the performances of Miss Ballard.

106. . . . Defendant Motown’s foreign licenses were inadequate in that, among other things, they failed to properly and adequately manufacture, distribute, market, exploit and sell phonograph records which embodied Miss Ballard’s performances.

107. The foreign licenses selected by Defendant Motown was [sic] done in a grossly negligent manner.

194

b

E
xcerpts from
F
lorence
B
allard’s
L
egal
C
ase
108. Defendant Motown should have and would have realized that the said foreign licensees were deficient and inadequate in capabilities to sufficiently manufacture, market, exploit and sell said phonograph records.