Two former Destiny’s Child members filed a federal lawsuit against the group, contending the hit song “Survivor” made derisive comments about them. “Survivor” won a Grammy for R&B performance by a duo or group on Wednesday night.
LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson contend the song is in violation of a previous settlement, which precludes either party from making “any public comment of a disparaging nature concerning one another.”
A line in the song, quoted in the lawsuit filed in a Houston federal court Wednesday, states: “You thought I wouldn’t sell without you, sold 9 million.”
Tom Fulkerson, an attorney for Destiny’s Child, called the lawsuit “ridiculous.”
“It’s unfortunate that the plaintiffs have nothing better to do with their time than to dream up new lawsuits to file,” Fulkerson said in Thursday’s editions of the Houston Chronicle. “We made a settlement agreement that we knew put things to bed, yet here we are again.”
At the time of the earlier settlement, there were four members in the group, including Beyonce Knowles, Kelly Rowland, Farrah Franklin and Michelle Williams. Franklin is no longer a member.
Luckett and Roberson now accuse Knowles, Rowland and Williams of making “deliberate disparaging, defamatory factual misrepresentations” in public comments to the press and with the group’s spring 2001 release of “Survivor.”
“We would like a restraining order and an injunction to prevent further comment that would violate the agreement and any further performance of that song,” said Warren M. Fitzgerald Jr., an attorney for Luckett and Roberson.
Luckett and Roberson, who live in Atlanta and continue to pursue a musical career, are also suing the group’s music label, Sony Music, and are seeking unspecified damages for breach of contract, defamation, libel and fraud.
