Judge tosses child porn suit filed by man featured on Nirvana’s 'Nevermind' album cover as a baby
Nirvana band members Krist Novoselic, Dave Grohl and Kurt Cobain in September 1993. Photo by Mark J. Terrill/The Associated Press.
A man who sued over his photo as a naked baby on a 1991 Nirvana album filed his child pornography suit too late, a federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin ruled against plaintiff Spencer Alden and tossed his lawsuit in a Sept. 2 decision.
Elden’s photo on the Nevermind album showed him swimming toward a dollar bill on a hook. He sued under a law providing a civil remedy for those who were victims of child pornography as children. Defendants included surviving band members, the estate of Kurt Cobain and Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love.
The statute of limitations requires the civil suit to be filed no more than 10 years after the victim reaches age 18, or no more than 10 years after the plaintiff reasonably discovers the pornography or the injury, whichever is later.
Elden argued he filed his suit within the 10-year statute of limitations because of ongoing violations of the law through promotion, distribution and rerelease of the album. Olguin rejected that argument.
According to Olguin, the 10-year statute of limitations for a civil suit requires the violation of the law to occur when the plaintiff was a minor and the plaintiff’s injury to occur while a minor or adult. The defendants defined injury to mean the moment the plaintiff discovers his or her victimization; Elden did not offer an alternative definition.
The lawsuit was filed too late “because it is undisputed that plaintiff did not file his complaint within 10 years after he discovered a violation that could form the basis for his [statutory] claim,” Olguin wrote.
Publications with stories on the decision include Courthouse News Service, Reuters, Rolling Stone and the New York Times.
