The case has run the statue of limitations
A Los Angeles judge has thrown out the lawsuit against Nirvana for the cover art of Nevermind. Spencer Elden, who’s featured swimming naked on the front cover, had accused the band of child pornography. However, US District Judge Fernando Olguin has dismissed the suit for the fourth time stating Elden had waited too long to file the claim.
The judge ruled the claim is beyond the 10 year of statute of limitations and prevents the 31 year old from suing the band again.
“We are pleased that this meritless case has been brought to a speedy final conclusion,” claims Bert Deixler, a lawyer for the band tells Reuters.
The suit was amended and refiled on January 12th after a California judge dismissed the suit “with leave to amend” on January 3rd after Elden’s team had initially failed to respond by the court-mandated December 30th deadline. The band blasted the lawsuit at the time, stating, “Elden’s decision to not sue these defendants for the past 30 years, despite his decades-long knowledge of their same and unvaried conduct, is dispositive of his claim. It is as simple as that.”
Elden’s revised suit dropped a sex trafficking allegation, and named photographer Kirk Weddle, Courtney Love, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, Universal Music Group, the David Geffen Co., Warner Music Group, and others responsible for the estate of the late Kurt Cobain, as defendants.
In his original suit, Elden says 40 to 50 different sexually graphic images of Elder were produced with a “goal of enhancing and increasing the commercial success of Nirvana, L.L.C.’s Nevermind album.” The suit accuses frontman Kurt Cobain of being “instrumental in selecting Spencer’s image for the album cover” and “chose the image depicting Spencer — like a sex worker— grabbing for a dollar bill that is positioned dangling from a fishhook in front of his nude body with his penis explicitly displayed.”
Cobain agreed to place a sticker strategically over his genitals after receiving pushback from others. The sticker read, “If you’re offended by this, you must be a closet pedophile.” However, the sticker was never incorporated into the album cover and left Elden fully exposed.
