Thursday, July 27, 1995
I was surprised at your decision because what I heard your honor say was that a contract existed between The Ishi Press (IPJ) and Mr. Sloan. To my mind that issue was closed unless reopened. And were it to be reopened we would have a chance to discuss it. The only remaining issue was whether or not Ishi Press International (IPI) and IPJ were funded and owned by distinctly different people so that a contract entered with IPJ could not be imputed to IPI. In paragraph four there is a clear explanation as to why Sam Sloan's royalties appear in Attachment A and why this does not reflect royalties owed Mr. Sloan.
Mr. Sloan probably needs to have the right to be able to raise additional issues or even reopen seemingly resolved issues based on new evidence for so long as the case is open. But that he can reopen a closed issue or open a new issue and have the court summarily resolve it without allowing further appropriate comment was unexpected and could lead to a poor disposition. Consequently, we assume that the case remanded to municipal court can be recalled if evidence and/or testimony is furnished showing that further critical information was available and admissible.
(It should be noted that we could have easily removed the potentially injurious material in making copies of these files. In their absence we would apparently have received a favorable and "correct" decision. It simply never occurred to us that the issue was still open because of how your instructions about additional evidence were couched.)
When Mr. Connelley wrote Attachment A he believed IPI would be paying Mr. Sloan royalties directly. About six months later, before any royalties were paid, Mr. Bozulich told Mr. Connelley to remit all royalties exclusively to IPJ. This was Mr. Bozulich's right under that contract. And because there was no material financial effect on the contract entered into with Mr. Berlekamp there is no further documentation in these files regarding this matter. So, it turns out that your honor's initial determination, that the contract is only between IPJ and Mr. Sloan is the correct one.
No direct payments were ever made to Mr. Sloan. All royalties owed Mr. Sloan were debited to the IPJ trade account in IPI's books. Though Mr. Sloan may wish to dispute it, that account has been paid in full and we are prepared to show that it has been paid, but I don't think that this is an issue for this court. Mr. Sloan needs to collect from Mr. Bozulich, not from us. But if your honor wants us to present account information we will prepare it. However, ACCPAC provides us only monthly statements and compiling several years is not trivial.
The practice of tracking Mr. Sloan's royalties ended when a second printing of his book took place. As Mr. Dovydiatis correctly testified the current price we pay for Chinese Chess for Beginners includes Mr. Sloan's royalties. Once again the court had seemingly decided, and for several good reasons including this testimony, that the contract was between Mr. Sloan and IPJ and that further testimony was only related to this issue of differences in the equitable ownership of the disparate business, IPI and IPJ. That this one document, Attachment A, taken out of historic context during the admission of evidence and without examination in relation to this resurrected or new issue should be allowed to foil justice is intolerable.
I'm sorry I could not respond more rapidly, but I do not work at Ishi every day. Mostly I work in Richmond and San Francisco. It takes several days, often a week, for me to get things from Ms. Miller. I have not responded because I received Mr. Sloan's July 14 letter Thursday, July 20 and learned that you were already issuing a statement. Ms Miller was out Monday and Tuesday and didn't get the mail until late Wednesday so I didn't see this until Thursday, July 27. I beseech your honor to recall this case which has been remanded to the Municipal Court for further consideration by the Superior Court based on this letter and some further written testimony Mr. Connelley has said he would prepare in order that justice be done.
Sincerely,
Hartland Snyder
I certify that copies have been mailed to Sam Sloan. - /s/ Hartland Snyder 7/28/95