Opinion ID: 2283337
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: royalties

Text: The defendant is a college professor. During the marriage he co-authored two textbooks and associated workbooks and teachers' manuals which are collectively called Bookmark. At the time of the trial one of the books had been released and the others were in the process of being released. The defendant testified that the life span for such textbooks is approximately five years and that he would receive a percentage of the sales income as royalties after deduction of the $1500 he had already received as a publisher's advance against royalties. The trial court awarded to the plaintiff 20 percent of the defendant's royalties on Bookmark for a period of five years. The defendant attacks this award as speculative. It is true that the exact dollar amount of the royalties to be received is not yet known; however, the right to receive the royalties is contractually established at the present time, unlike a potential inheritance which is speculative. See Krause v. Krause, 174 Conn. 361, 365, 387 A.2d 548 (1978). This is more akin to an order to sell the marital home and divide the proceeds. See Pasquariello v. Pasquariello, supra, 586-87. Although the exact sale price will not be determined until a sale is concluded, the legal right to the proceeds existed at the time of the order. The award is precisely defined as to subject matter, royalties on a specific completed set of books, and time, five years. It is, therefore, neither indefinite nor speculative.