Destiny’s Child Destined for Court

Two of Destiny’s Child’s original members, LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Robertson, filed a federal lawsuit claiming they were caused "irreparable harm" by lyrics in the song "Survivor." Luckett and Robertson state the offensive lyric, "You thought I wouldn’t sell/without you, sold 9 million," were a direct slight against them. They allege that the lyric means they "attempted to sabotage the group, abandoned their duties as members of the group and voluntarily left the group." Luckett and Robertson are trying to keep "Survivor" from ever being played on the radio or performed in concert again and they also named Sony records in the suit.

Warren M. Fitzgerald, an attorney for Luckett and Robertson, told the Houston Chronicle, "We would like a restraining order and an injunction to prevent further comment that would violate the agreement and any further performance of that song. It’s a hit that shouldn’t have been released." Luckett and Robertson also state that the other members of Destiny’s Child, Beyonce Knowles, Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland, made "deliberate, disparaging defamatory factual misrepresentations" about the two of them while doing publicity for the Survivor album in April 2001.

Luckett and Robertson sued the the band and manager, Matthew Knowles –Beyonce’s father and Rowland’s guardian, in 1999 after believing they were receiving "second-class treatment." They were out of the group and replaced with Michelle Williams and Farrah Franklin, who left the group shortly thereafter, in 2000. The suit was eventually settled out of court, and Luckett and Robertson received $850,000 each to "relinquish all future claims to the group" and it was a stipulation that neither side make "any public comment of a disparaging nature concerning one another." Sony refuses to comment on the suit, but Destiny’s Child’s lawyer, Tom Fulkerson, dismissed the "allegations as ‘ridiculous.’" Fulkerson told the Houston Chronicle, "It’s unfortunate that the plaintiffs have nothing better to do with their time than to dream up new lawsuits to file. We made a settlement that we knew put things to bed, yet here we are again."