(CN) - The estate of late-music promoter Stephen Popovich sued Sony Music Entertainment Inc. for a third time on claims for $3 million in royalties and record label credit in connection with four albums by rocker Meat Loaf.
     Popovich, founder of Cleveland Entertainment Co. Inc., signed up with CBS Records in 1977 to distribute music from Meat Loaf's albums, including "Bat Out of Hell" and "Dead Ringer," the estate says. Sony Music eventually took over CBS Records' end of the deal, according to the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Ohio.
     Popovich's estate claims that by the late 1990s, Sony Music had failed to pay tens of millions of dollars for royalties on Meat Loaf's songs. Although Popovich won a judgment against the music company in 1998, Sony failed to label the Meat Loaf albums with the Cleveland International Records logo as required, according to the complaint.
     In 2002, the estate filed a second lawsuit, following which a jury awarded it $5 million and another order that Sony Music properly label the rock albums, the estate claims.
     However, Sony Music still isn't labeling Meat Loaf's music properly, the estate says.
     Popovich's estate accuses the music company of manipulating its accounting to understate the royalties due to Cleveland Entertainment.
     Defendants also include Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsman Music Group Inc.
     The estate wants the parties' contract invalidated and all rights to the music to revert back to it, along with treble damages.
     The Popovich estate is represented by Charles Cooper Jr., Rex Elliott and Bradley Strickling with Cooper & Elliott.