Los Angeles – Singer and actress Cher is suing Warner/Chappell Music Inc. for breach of contract on claims that it failed to pay royalties estimated at more than $250,000.
The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, alleges that the music publisher has not paid song and performance royalties for the last four years.
The other plaintiffs include Chastity Bono, the daughter of Cher and her late husband Sonny Bono, and Christy Bono, Bono’s daughter from his first marriage.
Other plaintiffs are Mary Bono-Baxley and her children Chianna and Cesare Bono. It was not immediately clear whether she is Rep. Mary Bono, R-Palm Springs, who married ex-minor league baseball player Glenn Baxley in 2001.
A phone call to Edward Adler, spokesman for Time Warner Inc., which owners Warner/Chappell, seeking comment was not immediately returned early Friday.
Singing duo Cher and Sonny Bono had reached written agreements in 1965 and 1966 for recording services with York Records and Atlantic Recording Corporation that required them to pay royalties and provide an accounting of the payments, the suit said.
Warner/Chappell, which acquired Atlantic, breached those contracts, the suit said.