On Monday, New York State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Kapnick stood up to the slightly creepy, shades-sporting radio shock jock Howard Stern.
Justice Kapnick dismissed Stern’s $330 million lawsuit against satellite radio company Sirius XM Radio Inc., which he accused of withholding stock awards it allegedly owed him for helping it exceed growth projections by at least 2 million subscribers a year since 2006.
The suit claimed former subscribers of XM Satellite Radio Inc., which Sirius acquired in 2008, should be counted in calculating stock awards for Stern’s production company, One Twelve Inc., and fees for his agent, Don Buchwald. But Justice Kapnick dismissed Stern’s suit with prejudice, finding that Stern and Buchwald were bound by Stern’s 2004 agreement with Sirius, and that only the number of Sirius subscribers should be used to determine Stern’s stock awards.
“While it may be true that Stern and Buchwald hoped and expected to reap the benefits from any significant growth that Sirius experienced after they entered into the agreement, that subjective expectation cannot suffice to override the clear, unambiguous language of the agreement,” Kapnick wrote in her opinion.
A tweet from “The Howard Stern Show” said Stern plans on appealing.
Read Reuters for more about Stern’s suit.
