A federal appeals court has upheld legal fines against two lawyers who filed - and then dropped - a lawsuit accusing the music legend of sexually abusing a child in the 1960s. Filed in 2021, the case featured salacious allegations about Dylan, but music historians quickly said it wasn't even chronologically plausible. The unnamed accuser abruptly dismissed the case after the star's lawyers accused her of destroying key evidence. In a decision issued this week, a federal appeals court upheld monetary penalties against the woman's lawyers, whom Dylan's attorneys have accused of making "heinous and false allegations". Dylan's lawyers argued that they only found out the accuser had failed to turn over crucial emails after sending subpoenas - an argument that the appeals court called "particularly telling" in the new ruling. The penalties against the lawyers are relatively modest: $5000 (£3700) against one and $3000 (£2200) against the other. Dylan's lawyers called them "essentially symbolic" and a "fraction" of the money he had spent defeating the case. The accuser, identified in court documents only as JC, filed her case in August 2021, claiming the Blowin' in the Wind singer had abused her multiple times at Manhattan's Chelsea Hotel in April and May 1965. The lawsuit said he provided her with drugs and alcohol and "exploited" his status as part of a plan to "sexually molest her". Dylan vehemently denied the allegations, and rock historians quickly cast doubt on them, saying the folk star was on tour in California and overseas during the months in question. Less than a year after the case was filed, it was dropped without a settlement.