A New Jersey appeals court affirmed the earlier dismissal of a lawsuit against Bruce Springsteen over his use of a New Jersey car collector’s 1967 Pontiac GTO on the cover of his 2022 record “Only the Strong Survive.”
As detailed in the Sept. 15 ruling, dry cleaner and classic car collector Louis A. Billotti was paid a total of $1,200 for Springsteen to pose during two photoshoots with his vintage Pontiac GTO in the fall of 2021.
According to a report by Billboard, one of those photos ultimately became the album artwork for Springsteen’s “Only the Strong Survive,” a collection of R&B and soul covers that debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 in 2022.
The photos of Springsteen with the Pontiac also appeared in a variety of promotional merchandise, according to the ruling. Billotti died just months after the second photoshoot, prior to the album’s release.
In a subsequent lawsuit, Billotti’s son alleged that his father had been orally promised additional money if the photos were eventually used on an album cover. Springsteen, manager Jon Landau, and Sony Music Entertainment were all named in the suit.
The case was ultimately dismissed by a trial court due to insufficient evidence, and Billotti’s estate filed an appeal.
As detailed in the Sept. 15 ruling, Springsteen denied making any promises or assurances of future payment.
Multiple third-party witnesses had no firsthand personal knowledge of any such assurances, and several testified that Billotti never told them he had been promised a contract or additional compensation, the ruling says. One “extremely close” friend of Billotti went as far as to describe him in an affidavit as “a simple guy and just really enjoyed the experience he had with Bruce Springsteen and was looking forward to seeing his car on the album cover.”
On Sept. 15, the New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division upheld the trial court’s dismissal, writing, “The trial court reasonably concluded that plaintiff did not establish a right to be paid more than that, in the absence of evidence to substantiate clear and definite terms of a hypothetical agreement for services that had already been performed.”
Legal counsel for Billotti’s estate declined to comment on the ruling and attorneys for Springsteen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The written ruling later continues: “In sum, whatever aspirations decedent may have had to be paid more money than the agreed-upon sums, the alleged promises were insufficiently evidenced and legally untenable. The lawsuit was appropriately dismissed.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: “NJ appeals court sides with Bruce Springsteen in album cover lawsuit”
Reporting by Amanda Wallace, NorthJersey.com / NorthJersey.com
