According to Blabbermouth, the trial between Queensryche’s drummer Scott Rockenfield and its original members Michael Wilton, guitarist for the band, and Eddie Jackson, the bassist, has been arranged to be held in Snohomish Country Superior Court in Washington State, starting at 9 in the morning on January the 16th in 2024.
The lawsuit was filed against Wilton and Jackson in October of 2021, by Rockenfield, who accused them of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and wrongful discharges, among others.
What sparked this lawsuit was Rockenfield’ s leaving the band in 2017 due to the issues with his fiancée’s birth of their son, in which she had to take and emergency Cesarean delivery. Rockenfield has claimed that his absence has been approved by all the other members of the band, and agreeing to let him hold a third of the interests of their companies.
However, despite receiving some income from Tri-Ryche since February 2017, Rockenfield claims that he has never received any payments from Melodisc or from EMS since then, as well as none from Queensryche Merchandising since early 2018. In 2018, Rockenfield received a letter, which says that on October 11th in 2018, Wilton and Jackson have voted to dismiss Rockenfield from the companies they’re holding, taking his approved absence as part of the reason as well. Rockenfield claims that the two “have wrongfully withheld from Rockfield all sources of income” from their companies, which is in violation to their earlier agreements, and without a lawful excuse, and have “failed to provide Rockenfield with an accounting of the books, records, business and contracts of the QR Companies”
While Rockenfield has been participating in the music production process in 2017 and 2018, Wilton and Jackson excluded Rockenfield from the recording of their lates album, “The Verdict,” despite his abilities and willingness to join in.
On March the 20th of 2022, Wilton and Jackson points out that Rockenfield’ s leaving in 2017 was right before Queensryche’s touring schedule, with Rockenfield fully aware of his importance to the band during these tours, leaving the band searching for another drummer in haste for the tours. They point out that despite their eager request, Rockenfield has failed to respond to the band’s need of him on the set, leading them to believe that Rockenfield has not been able to generate any income for the companies and the band since his leave, but has also generated great debt for the band in reorganizing. They have also accused Rockenfield of drawing $10,000 cash from the band without permission for his personal use. All of these has forced them to see Rockenfield as abandoning his position and responsibilities and take Rockenfield out of the company.
Queensryche is touring in Sacramento, check them out!
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