Reference no: EM131278961

In July 2012, the six adult cast members of the hit television show Modern Family filed a joint lawsuit against Twentieth Century Fox Television in an attempt to void their contracts. The lawsuit claimed that their contracts were illegal, in that the contracts broke California's "7-year rule". The 7-year rule stipulates that contracts regarding personal services may not span longer than seven years. Yet the actors' contracts guaranteed their services from 2009 to 2016. A big incentive for the actors to file the lawsuit was to increase the amount they each were paid per episode, which for most of them was $65,000 per episode. If a contract is illegal, may it be voided even if the actors knowingly signed to the terms of the contract? How do you think the judge should have decided this case, and why?