Terrence Howard’s long-running legal fight over his Empire paycheck is over in Los Angeles, after a judge tossed his lawsuit against Creative Artists Agency. The ruling ends the actor’s bid to argue that CAA’s competing financial interests left him accepting less than his role was worth.
According to MyNewsLA, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Cherol Nellon ruled Friday after hearing arguments Wednesday and taking the matter under submission. Nellon found Howard failed to create a triable issue over his entitlement to damages, reasoning that any increased compensation would have benefited his loan-out company, Universal Bridges, rather than Howard personally.
Howard filed the lawsuit in December 2023, alleging breach of fiduciary duty, constructive fraud and fraudulent representation. The complaint claimed CAA represented Howard, the show’s producers and other parties during Empire while allegedly placing its own financial interests and those of other clients ahead of his, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
The compensation dispute centered on some very large Hollywood numbers. In a sworn declaration, Howard said Fox rejected a $750,000-per-episode demand and said it would not raise his pay above $325,000 per episode; CAA countered that his claims were untimely, speculative and without merit, according to MyNewsLA.
The Packaging Fight Behind Howard’s Claim
The case landed in the shadow of Hollywood’s broader battle over agency packaging, the practice in which an agency can receive fees from a studio for assembling a project instead of relying only on a client commission. The Writers Guild of America says its franchise agreements ended agencies’ ability to negotiate packaging fees on new WGA-covered projects after June 30, 2022, while older package arrangements can remain in place.
What The Ruling Decided
Howard’s theory was that CAA’s role in packaging Empire created incentives that could conflict with its duty to push for the maximum value of his work. But the reported ruling did not send those competing negotiation stories to a jury; the case ended at the stage where Howard had to show a legally triable damages claim.
Empire premiered in 2015, ran for six seasons through 2020 and opened with nearly 10 million viewers, details that helped drive Howard’s argument that his compensation should have reflected the show’s unusual success, the Los Angeles Times reported. For Los Angeles’ entertainment business, the case is another reminder that a blockbuster credit can make a paycheck dispute look simple on the surface while turning the underlying agency economics into the real courtroom drama.
