sgt-paul:On Thursday, 18 February 1971, Paul filed a writ in the Chancery Division of the High Court
sgt-paul:On Thursday, 18 February 1971, Paul filed a writ in the Chancery Division of the High Court calling for the dissolution of the Beatles partnership and asking for accounts to be made of the partnership’s dealings and a receiver to be appointed to oversee the partners’ assets. The case was actively opposed by the other three Beatles, who wanted things to remain as they were with Klein in control. Paul and Linda attended every day of the proceedings. John Eastman told Paul he had to wear a suit and tie. Paul wore his Tommy Nutter suit, the one he wore on the cover of Abbey Road, but refused to wear a tie. Paul told him, ‘That’s too humiliating. I’m dressing up so they’ll think I’m innocent. There’s no way I’m doing that.’ Paul had a full navy beard, like the sailor on the Players Navy Cut cigarette packet, and wore a white open-neck shirt. None of the other Beatles made an appearance.PAUL: I walked down to the Law Courts and sat on the second pew from the front, facing the judge. I turned round to look and right behind me was my counsel, David Hirst, QC, with his little glass of water, and then a couple of rows behind him, in a brown turtleneck sweater, was Allen Klein. I just looked at him, then turned away. His barrister David Hirst put on a brilliant show. He told Mr Justice Stamp: Mr Klein cannot be trusted with the stewardship of the partnership, properly and assets… Mr Klein has paid himself commission to which he is not entitled and is asserting an entitlement to even more… Our confidence in Mr Klein has not been enhanced by the fact that on 29 January he was convicted on ten tax offences by a jury in a New York Federal District Court.David Hirst explained to the judge that three things happened early in 1970 that made Paul decide to leave the group. The first was that Allen Klein tried to delay the release of Paul’s solo album McCartney on the ground that it was in breach of the partnership agreement. In fact, their partnership agreement only prevented the Beatles from appearing alone or with other artists. There was nothing to prevent individual records being made. (The Beatles were not even aware that this partnership document existed until Klein found it, but in any case, these clauses in the partnership agreement had been regularly broken, mostly by John, who had performed with the Plastic Ono Band and released several albums with Yoko.) Paul’s second reason was that Allen Klein’s company ABKCO altered Paul’s ‘Long and Winding Road’ on the Let It Be album without consulting him. The third reason, David Hirst said, was that ABKCO, without any authority from Paul, had transferred the rights of the film Let It Be from Apple to United Artists.[…] Seeing Klein in court changed Paul’s feelings towards him. 'I felt he wasn’t such a threat now. Once the ball is rolling you get a bit of an onward-going feeling. I would be there looking at the judge all the time and if ever there was a patent lie, I would do a shake of the head or something.' […] The judge was particularly scathing about Allen Klein, whose testimony he described as ’the prattling of a second-class salesman’, and concluded that he was unconvinced 'that there is now in the office a staff able to disentangle the Beatles’ affairs, or give the necessary directions to professional men, or make the necessary administrative decisions’. In other words, he distrusted Klein’s ability to administer their affairs. He granted Paul’s application for a receiver to take over the running of the partnership until a full trial could determine the long-term future of the Beatles and their companies. PAUL: So anyway, what happened was I single-handedly saved the Beatle empire! Ha! Ha! He said modestly. I can laugh about it now; it was not so funny at the time.— paul mccartney: many years from now, by barry miles -- source link