September 8, 2010 | The Biz

COLT fight continues

COLT Studio Group is trying to stop Jim French Studios from accessing COLT's business records at two Bay Area premises. The company has asked a federal bankruptcy judge to overrule U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Alan Jarosolvsky's decision last week that permitted Jim French Studios to search for and copy business records.

Jim French is claiming he has yet to be paid a $2.2 million promissory note related to the sale of the company from over 7 years ago. French, a photographer, founded the company in 1967.

David Chandler, COLT’s attorney, countered that the original order “overreaches and exceeds” the scope of Rule 2004 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, which only allows creditors with "good cause" the right to probe business records.

“There is a dispute as to the breadth of the security interest held by Jim French Studios,” Chandler said in a brief. "[COLT] has pending in the Superior Court case a cross complaint based upon the failure of Jim French Studios to deliver a substantial portion of the images which it was contractually obligated to deliver upon close of the sale.”

Last month, French said that he would try to re-establish control of COLT's assets. French said, “I am very pleased with a decision turning over the COLT brand and assets back into my control. I’ve spent the past several years fighting to get what I was rightfully owed, and in the end I have prevailed."

COLT, obviously, does not see the dispute in quite the same way. Business, porn or otherwise, is a messy thing indeed.

COLT Fighting Inspections Ordered by Court [XBiz]