By Charles Toutant, New Jersey Law Journal

A federal jury in Newark has ordered Robert Fusari, a record producer credited with launching the career of Lady Gaga, to pay $7.3 million to a songwriter who claimed she brought the two together.

Wendy Starland claimed in her suit that Fusari broke a promise to give her a cut of revenues from the career of Lady Gaga, whose given name is Stefani Germanotta. Following a seven-day trial before U.S. District Judge Jose Linares, the jury granted Starland’s request for 50 percent of the roughly $12 million that Fusari earned from Gaga’s career. Starland was also awarded a one-time payment of $900,000, which represents half of the record and merchandising royalties Fusari is entitled to receive over the next nine years, as well as 50 percent of any funds Fusari receives as his cut of future record deals related to Gaga.

The jury made the award to Starland on her claims of breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty. No award was made on her claims of quantum meruit and unjust enrichment.

Starland, a singer, songwriter and producer from Hollywood, Calif., claimed in the suit that it was she who found Germanotta, at the behest of Fusari. Sometime in 2005, according to the suit, Fusari told Starland that he was searching for a unique female singer under the age of 25, who could be the female equivalent of Julian Casablancas, the lead singer of the band The Strokes.

Fusari promised and Starland agreed that if she could find and introduce him to such a singer, they would work together to develop her and share equally in any resulting revenues earned as a result, according to the suit. After about eight months of searching, Starland claimed, she found Germanotta performing at The Cutting Room in New York City on March 23, 2006.

Starland claimed in her suit that she set up the initial meeting between Germanotta and Fusari at his recording studio and, over the course of the ensuing months, met with her regularly to work on her songs, musical style and artistic development.

Starland asserts Fusari never paid her anything for her efforts regarding Gaga. When Fusari entered into an agreement in 2006 with Mermaid Music, owned by Germanotta and her father, to form a company called Team Love Child, he allegedly excluded Starland from the negotiations, the suit claimed.

And when Mermaid or Team Love signed a recording deal with a major label, Interscope Records, Fusari allegedly refused Starland’s request for a share of the money he would receive as a result.

The verdict follows a settlement of separate litigation, in a New York state court, in which Fusari sought $30 million from Germanotta for helping her to get a recording contract. That suit was resolved in a confidential 2010 settlement.

In the Starland case, Germanotta and Fusari moved jointly to seal the terms of the prior settlement, and Linares granted the motion July 11.

James DeZao, who heads a Parsippany, N.J., firm, represented Fusari. He did not return a call seeking comment; nor did the lawyers for Starland, Laura Scileppi, of Dunnegan & Scileppi in New York, and David Kohane of Cole, Schotz, Meisel, Forman & Leonard in Hackensack, N.J.

IMAGE: Lady Gaga

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