Massachusetts Royalty Claim Advances Despite NY Choice of Law

A professor’s proposed class action alleging informational injury from a publisher’s misleading reports can move forward in Massachsetts despite a New York choice of law provision.

Fred Kleiner had a publishing agreement with Cengage Learning Holdings II Inc., which changed its royalty structure and adopted a subscription model in the wake of a bankruptcy filing. Kleiner accused the publisher of filing confusing and misleading royalty reports, stonwalling authors’ attempts to get clarification, and using the confusion to try to force more favorable royalty terms from the purported class.

Cengage told the lower court that Kleiner’s agreement had a choice-of-law clause ...