Gabriella Wilson, professionally known as H.E.R. has filed a lawsuit for declaratory relief and violation of the business and professions code against her long-time record label, MBK Entertainment, wanting to be released from her contract.
The label is owned by Wilson’s current manager, Jeff Robinson, who signed her in 2011 at age 14. The singer is claiming that the long-held contract has exceeded the seven-year statute specified by California’s business and professional laws, which reached this point in 2019, and now violates the state’s labour codes.
Wilson is claiming that MBK “has significantly limited her employment rights” and that she “has not been free to provide her recording services except as permitted or dictated by MBK.”
Also included in the suit, Wilson alleges that upon signing to Robinson’s management, he fired her previous law firm before introducing his own lawyers, which caused subsequent contracts and touring agreements that were negotiated by them. In the suit, Wilson claims that the lawyers took five percent of the deals they negotiated, something she alleges she never agreed to.
The California seven-year statute limits the term of personal service employment to seven years, for example, a personal service employment contract cannot be enforced for the period exceeding seven years. Wilson is seeking to be released from her MBK contract, asking the courts to acknowledge the label’s violation and deem her agreement “voidable and may not be enforced.”
More on the story as it develops
