Quinta Brunson Victorious in Court Battle Accusing Her of Ripping Off 'Abbott Elementary' From Writer
Quinta came out on top.
March 28 2024, Published 1:30 p.m. ET
A federal court judge dismissed the lawsuit accusing Quinta Brunson and ABC of stealing a writer’s idea for the hit sitcom Abbott Elementary.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, a New York judge dismissed the lawsuit brought by writer Christine Davis.
Davis filed her case in July 2022 against Brunson, ABC, and the production companies behind Abbott.
Brunson created Abbott a sitcom that focuses on the struggles of teachers at a Philadelphia public school.
In the suit, Davis claimed the idea and characters in Abbott were stolen from her show, This School Year.
“Without [Davis’] permission, license, authority, or consent, [Brunson & ABC] knowingly and illegal used [Davis’] works to create the Abbott Elementary television show,” the suit read. Davis’ script is a comedy set in a New York public school — and had similar characters and tone.
The main character in Davis’ work was a woman named Ms. David who she described as a “young, idealistic teacher hoping to get tenure but also trying to convince everyone that the school needs to be reformed.”
Davis said she sent her script to two women at a production company and had multiple meetings around town — but nothing materialized.
The writer claimed she wrote her script in 2018. Abbott premiered in 2021. She believed Brunson and the writers came in contact with her work and ripped it off.
Brunson and ABC demanded the suit be tossed. They argued the works were not substantially similar.
Their motion read, “Starting with reading the very first page of Plaintiff’s treatment, it is evident that the concept and feel of the works are wholly dissimilar. While This School Year begins with a second-grade teacher Ms. Davis, slamming a book against her face at the idea that a new school year is starting, Abbott Elementary begins with a bubbly, positive, and optimistic second-grade teacher, Janine Teagues, gushing about how excited she is to be starting another year with her students.”
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Brunson’s lawyer argued, “The characters of the works are not similar either. [Davis] characterizes the protagonists of the two shows, Ms. Davis and Ms. Teagues, as “ambitious, young, motivated, and naïve characters,” but in This School Year, Ms. Davis is already jaded about the inner workings of her school. Ms. Davis is often miserable, seen literally screaming “from the top of her lungs” and throwing a book in despair.”
In the recent ruling, the judge found that Davis had not, “plausibly alleged that Defendants engaged in any unlawful copying of the Work, as the Court’s comparison of This School Year and Abbott Elementary makes plain that no discerning ordinary observer would find the works to be substantially similar.”
The judge said he found, “that each of Plaintiff’s alleged similarity either implicates unprotectable general expressions, or does not actually implicate any similarity at all, as the underlying works reveal that the works are not similar in the manner alleged.”
As a result, the judge dismissed all claims.
