Lawsuit Over Nirvana Album Cover Art Dismissed

Perhaps one of the strangest storylines of 2021 involved the nude baby on the cover of Nirvana's "Nevermind" album. The baby in the picture is Spencer Elden who is now 30 years old. He filled a lawsuit against a bunch of people including the surviving members of Nirvana, and Courtney Love in her role as executor of Kurt Cobain's will.

The premise behind the lawsuit that Elden presented in court rested on the argument that members of the band as well as their managers, “knowingly produced, possessed, and advertised commercial child pornography,”. Ever since the lawsuit was filed people on the Nirvana side claimed that the lawsuit was "meritless."

The judge in the case didn't necessarily agree with the band wholeheartedly. However, the case is on the verge of being completely thrown out.

As we've mentioned the original lawsuit was filled against a large group of people and companies. Many of these companies, particularly certain record labels are now completely extinct. Perhaps even more baffling is the fact that Nirvana's original drummer Chad Channing was named in the lawsuit. Channing had long left the band. and was replaced by current Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl way before the "Nevermind" album was even in production.

On top of some of these irregularities that could contribute to getting the case dismissed in favor of Nirvana, the living band members and the record labels in the lawsuit argue that Spencer Elden has profited from being the "Nirvana baby" for years. Before he made this lawsuit against the band and their record labels at the time.

The reason why the case is being dismissed and has a high probability of being thrown out completely is that Spencer Elden has failed to respond to Nirvana's motion to get the case dismissed. As was mentioned before, this dismissal would come not necessarily because Judge Fernando M. Olguin of the US District Court of Central California, fully agrees with the band. The case is on the verge of being dismissed on a "technicality". Spencer Elden had a December 30 deadline to respond to Nirvana's request to have the case dismissed. Elden missed the deadline, and therefore the judge is proceeding with the request made by members of the band.

It's looking like Nirvana's legal troubles over this whole child pornography issue are going to be in the rearview mirror for the living members of the band real soon. However, the famous Nirvana baby has a new deadline to respond to the original request made by the band. Judge Olguin has now set a new deadline for January 13th. The court order directly mentions,

“Plaintiff is cautioned that failure to timely file a Second Amended Complaint shall result in this action being dismissed without prejudice for failure to prosecute and/or failure to comply with a court order."

If Spencer Elden's legal team files another complaint the Nirvana side will have to file another request to have the case dismissed, and the issue could drag on for a while longer.