Page 90 - RICHERT VS. SORKIN THEFT OF THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT AND THE WEST WING
P. 90
October 9, 2010
FROM ERIC HUGHES;
Subject: THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT PRE-ARBITRATION HEARING
There is only one Guild procedure to determine if two projects have been developed separately and at some point have merged into a single project and that is a participating writer investigation.
The participating writer investigation procedure has never been approved by a referendum of the membership - although all credits procedures must be approved by the membership.
And, in fact, the procedure itself has never been disclosed to the membership.
The decision that the pre-arbitration panel made in THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT arbitration is that two separately developed projects had merged into one project which led to Sorkin's material being listed with the Richert/Morris material as the first original writing done on the project.
To determine if two projects have been developed separately and then merged into one, the Guild looks to three factors -
.commonality (were the same development executives involved, were the
