Last Thursday, a Connecticut judge shot down Hatebreed’s request to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the band’s former bassist, Chris Beattie, over unpaid profits. The original lawsuit was filed by Beattie on July 30th of last year. It came after he was removed from the band in November of 2024. He and Jamey Jasta were the last two original members remaining in the band since its conception in 1994. Beattie’s lawsuit alleged that Hatebreed still owes him money and that Jasta removed him to get a larger share of the band’s profits.
According to an agreement in 2015, Beattie, Jasta and the band’s drummer Matt Byrne would all receive 25 percent of sales and revenue from merchandise, while the other band members received 12.5 percent of sales, as reported in Loudwire. However, the lawsuit alleges that Beattie had no insight into the distribution of finances.
Beattie and Jasta (real name James Shanahan) were Hatebreed’s main songwriters and collected the majority of published proceeds. The lawsuit claims, “With Beattie out of the band, Shanahan likely believed that he could stand to recover significantly more in the way of publishing proceeds.”
Hatebreed initially responded via a motion filed on September 25th of last year. The motion claimed that Beattie’s removal did not violate any contractual agreements and asked the court to dismiss four of the six claims Beattie made in his lawsuit. The two remaining claims concerned merchandising sales.
With the judge’s dismissal, the two sides will try to settle in June, according to Loudwire. If that’s unsuccessful, the case will move to a jury trial in April of 2027.
Photo credit: Boston Lynn Schulz
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