Mastodon filed their first response in court on 2 November to the lawsuit brought by Brent Hinds's estate, asking an Atlanta judge to dismiss part of it. Billboard reported the filing, made by Brann Dailor, Bill Kelliher and Troy Sanders.
The argument is narrower than the headline suggests, and the band's lawyers say so themselves. They are not contesting that something is owed for Hinds's twenty five per cent of the band's business, which the estate says an eighty thousand dollar payment did not cover. They are contesting how the question is framed: a disagreement over an amount, they argue, is a contractual matter, not a breach of fiduciary duty or conversion.
The filing puts it plainly. Honoring Hinds's legacy does not require rewriting the agreements governing his business interests, it reads, or imposing obligations on his former bandmates that Georgia law does not recognize.
A second part concerns the sleeve of Marrow Deep, released in August, which the estate says carries Hinds's likeness without permission. The band want that one dismissed as having no legal basis.
The distinction matters because the two routes end in different places. A contract claim is settled on the numbers. A fiduciary claim asks what three people owed a fourth, and that is the part the band have moved first to remove.