Posts Tagged ‘ Michael Jackson ’

Michael Jackson Class Action Seeks $$ – What Else?

November 19th, 2012. By AbiK

Michael Jackson might be dead but he will not die. At least when it comes to lawsuit filings.

The latest in the Michael Jackson post-death legal saga is a class action lawsuit filed by his former assistant, Michael Amir Williams. Williams claims that he was hired to attend to MJ during the “This Is It” tour—the one that the gloved one was gearing up for just before his untimely death—and that he and others who were hired to do the same were deprived of $ 7.5 million in pay.

The Michael-Jackson-owes-me lawsuit was filed against concert promoter AEG Live in Los Angeles last week. But there’s a twist to this one.

According to a Reuters report, Williams is targeting AEG Live because the promoter also hired Dr. Conrad Murray. Dr Murray, if you recall, was the man convicted of involuntary manslaughter for supplying and administering propofol to Jackson, ultimately leading to his death.

So Williams and other ‘This Is It’ crew member who’d make up the would-be class are employing some kind of transitivity theory here: AEG Live hired Murray; Murray was convicted in Jackson’s death leading to the “This Is It” tour to be cancelled and Williams et al not getting paid; therefore, AEG Live should be on the hook for Williams et al not getting paid.

Needless to say, the folks at AEG aren’t buying it. Reuters quotes AEG lawyer, Marvin Putnam (O’Melveny & Myers) as calling the class action lawsuit “frivolous”. He goes on to say that “This lawsuit is clearly frivolous; it is literally barred by at least four different legal doctrines. The easiest is that Mr. Williams was a personal employee of Michael Jackson’s, and was never a beneficiary of Mr. Jackson’s contract with AEG Live. As such he has no legal standing to sue on that contract.”

Williams is suing for breach of express terms of contract, breach of implied terms of contract, and breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. As far as what he’s seeking for the class, it’s the usual “unspecified damages”–plus court and attorneys’ fees.

And if you’re thinking Michael Jackson is the only dead celebrity who lives on in our court system, he’s got company—Anna Nicole Smith is still visiting the bar as well.

Tags: California Labor, Class Action Lawsuit, Michael Jackson, Wage & Hour
Posted in Celebrity, Class Action, lawsuits | No Comments »

DEA Swamped With Calls Regarding Jackson’s Death

June 29th, 2009. By Evelyn Pringle

On June 27, 2009, the Drug Enforcement Agency issued a press release to members of the media titled: “DEA Responds to Large Number of Calls regarding Michael Jackson’s Death”.

The UK’s Sun newspaper claims Jackson was taking Demerol, Dilaudid, Vicodin, Xanax, Soma, Paxil, Zoloft and Prilosec.

“Due to the large amount of calls from the media regarding the death of Michael Jackson and questions regarding prescription drugs,” the DEA said in the press release, “the DEA has put information about prescription drug abuse and use on the front page of www.dea.gov for your use.”

The headline on the agency’s website for a May 2009, report reads: “Recent Report Confirms Dangers of Prescription Drug Abuse; Young Adults Hardest Hit”

The “National Prescription Drug Threat Assessment,” was prepared by the National Drug Intelligence Center in conjunction with the DEA. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Demerol, Michael Jackson, OxyContin, Vicodin
Posted in Emerging Issues | No Comments »