Big payday over rights

JOHN Steinbeck’s stepdaughter has won a $US13 million ($A16 million) case against the late author’s son and daughter-in-law, who she claimed impeded her film adaptations of his classics The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden.

A federal jury in Los Angeles ruled in favour of Waverly Scott Kaffaga, who claimed long-running litigation over Steinbeck’s estate had stopped her from bringing the novelist’s masterpieces to the screen at a time when big names like director Steven Spielberg and actor Jennifer Lawrence were keen to be involved.