The promised September 22 meeting concerning the lawsuit the Tolkien Trust brought against New Line Cinema on February of this year has taken place. The purpose of the meeting was for the judge to announce a ruling on the amended Trust complaint. The ruling was filed on September 24. The Judge’s decision was mixed, with benefits for both sides in the case.

There are three major decisions involved. First, the Tolkien Trust had requested a rewording of the original 1969 contract, alleging that it misstated an arrangement concerning the percentage of payments due for one of the films. The judge ruled against that “on the ground that it is time-barred.” Under New York law (which holds in this case since the contract was originally filed in the state of New York), the amendment would have had to be made within six years of the original contract’s date.

Second, the judge overruled New Line’s revised Demurrer requesting that the Trust’s charge of fraud be dropped. In her first ruling, in June, the judge had deemed that the Tolkien Trust had not sufficiently argued for fraud in its original complaint. Their amended complaint has satisfied her, and she states that “This cause of action are [sic] well stated.”

Third, the judge sustains New Line’s “motion to strike the request for punitive damages.” Among the punitive damages could have been the Trust’s request that the court confirm its right to terminate New Line’s rights to produce The Hobbit.

Both the first and the third judgments were made “without leave to amend.” Thus the Trust cannot file an amended complaint concerning the contract rewording or the punitive damages. Of most immediate interest to fans is that fact that that means production of The Hobbit cannot possibly happen under the terms of this particular lawsuit.

New Line is given ten days after the meeting to respond. Given that it won the first and third points and that the judge has ruled that the Tolkien Trust has now made a sufficient case for fraud charges to be retained in its complaint, there seems little reason for New Line to file yet another Demurrer. The ruling has clarified the terms of the lawsuit. Possibly now that that has happened, the two sides will be motivated to settle out of court. If not, they will proceed in their gathering of evidence for the trial itself, scheduled for just over a year from now, in October, 2009.

(For the Associated Press’s summary of the case, see TheOneRing.net. For my earlier entries on the lawsuit, see here.)