Stan Lee’s Daughter Ducks Legal Sanctions in Fraud Litigation

Stan Lee’s daughter and her attorney will avoid paying $1 million in sanctions for filing a suit claiming the comic book artist’s business partners defrauded him late in life, because the suit was legally reasonable, the Ninth Circuit said Monday.

Joan Celia Lee’s suit against POW! Entertainment Inc., however, duplicated an issue decided in previous litigation, so the trial court properly dismissed the case, the appeals court said in an unsigned, unpublished opinion.

Lee alleged her father, who created Spider-Man and numerous other Marvel characters, formed Stan Lee Entertainment and transferred his intellectual property rights to the company after being ...