From Australia comes a reminder (not that we needed one) of the enduring value of written contracts. A court ruled in favor of Australian author Kate Morton, who was sued by her former literary agent Selwa Anthony (and then countersued for breach of “fiduciary duty and duty of care”). Anthony claimed that she was entitled to commissions on Morton’s backlist in perpetuity, despite having been fired in 2015, based on a claim of a verbal agreement in a 2002 phone conversation. The pair never had a written agency agreement; during the trial, Anthony said she “didn’t believe in contracts.” Justice […]
