GODFATHER’S ANSWER AND COUNTERCLAIM

An Interesting and Well-Drafted Pleading

This February, Paramount Studios sued one of Mario Puzo’s (author of The Godfather) children and personal representative of Mario’s estate, Anthony Puzo, claiming that the author’s family did not have the right to authorize the publication of a new novel about the Godfather’s fictional Corleone family. Mario Puzo’s estate answered the complaint saying that Mario never gave the studio the right to publish his books and counterclaimed, arguing that the studio breached its agreement with Mario not to publish. If the Puzo estate prevails, there may be a new Godfather movie.

The Answer and Counterclaim in the Godfather case has been added to the Aspen advocacy books website, and it can be found here. This website www.aspenadvocacybooks.com has sections devoted to exemplary and interesting legal documents for both pretrial and trial practice. The goal for the website is to compile a collection of interesting and well-drafted templates that are useful to law students, professors and practicing lawyers. This Answer and Counterclaim qualified for posting because it is both well-drafted and worthy of note.