What do you think of this?

Question by Brody: What do you think of this?
Jun 7, 5:13 PM EDT

Country group Alabama sues drummer for $ 200K

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — The drummer for the country group Alabama has been sued by his fellow band members, who say he was overpaid $ 202,670.

The lawsuit filed May 9 in the Circuit Court of DeKalb County, Ala., claims that in 2003 Mark Herndon was paid for his share of net merchandise sales during the band’s “American Farewell Tour” before a final accounting was done.

The final accounting, the suit claims, found that “there were no net merchandise revenues as defined by the contract.”

The lawsuit seeks to recover the money.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PEOPLE_ALABAMA_DRUMMER?SITE=TXCOR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

What do you think about the phrase “as defined by the contract”? And why would they have paid the drummer and not the other band members?

The drummer further says the band owes him $ 65,000 for a live CD being sold through Cracker Barrel Restaurants.

Best answer:

Answer by Flavio D
It sounds like money was received by the band accountant or manager, who then distributed the money in a way that, apart from the drummer, the other band members considered incorrect.

The key is the phrase “as defined by the contract”. As an example, the contract may have specified that “net merchandise revenues” should have been computed by deducting from the gross sales revenues all the marketing expenses, travel expenses, the printing cost, the manager’s salary, and all sorts of other things.

The person that collected the sales revenues might not have not what the contract said, and may have mistakenly started distributing it without considering ALL of the other expenses.

For some reason the drummer may have got paid first, before anybody realized the mistake, and the left over money was probably not even sufficient to cover all other expenses, leaving the rest of the band holding the bag.

What do you think? Answer below!