Roughly 15 years after the death of pop icon Michael Jackson, his estate remains a contentious issue for his surviving family members. And Jackson’s 93-year-old mother, Katherine Jackson, is at the center of it all.
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Things came to a head over the reported $600 million sale of half of Jackson’s music assets to Sony Music Group. According to Billboard, which broke the news of the sale, his music assets are valued at over $1.2 billion — meaning the stakes are incredibly high for everyone involved.
While there’s plenty we could wade into, the current drama mostly centers around the sale of Jackson’s music assets and who’s responsible for the mountain of legal fees that piled up during Katherine’s legal fight.
Earlier this month, Rolling Stone Magazine reported that Katherine Jackson was asking a Los Angeles court to hold Michael Jackson’s estate executors in contempt of court for closing the music deal without her consent while waiting on a separate appeal about the transaction. Mrs. Jackson has an officer role in the Jackson estate and a reported 10 percent stake.
“On March 1st, I sent a letter to the estate asking for an explanation as to the authority they used as the basis in order to proceed with the transaction, and – crickets. No response at all. We don’t understand why this is not contempt of this court,” said her lawyer, Robert E. Allen.
A Judge reportedly sided with the estate executors, arguing that they did not need permission to move ahead with the transaction. However, the appeal remains pending, meaning future legal action against the estate over the sale is still on the table.
As we mentioned, her legal fees are also a source of tension.
In court, her attorneys reiterated her request to have the estate pay her hefty fees — arguing that the estate was punishing her for opposing the sale. “We wouldn’t be here if the estate wasn’t trying to punish Katherine Jackson for having the temerity to challenge their actions. If this was attorney fees incurred to handle some other piece of litigation, they would have paid,” her lawyer Adam Pines with Glaser Weil argued in court, according to Rolling Stone. “What the executors appear to be doing is waiting for Mrs. Jackson to pass away.”
Enter the family drama.
According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Michael Jackson’s son, Blanket Jackson, took legal action against his grandmother to block her from obtaining money from the estate to pay her legal fees.
The Root reached out to the Jackson estate but has not independently confirmed TMZ’s reporting.
According to TMZ, Blanket doesn’t want the estate to pay for Katherine Jackson’s continued legal actions against the estate — namely her appeal of the sale of Jackson’s music assets.
So far, it doesn’t appear as if a ruling has been made on Katherine Jackson’s legal fees — but the drama in this case doesn’t appear to be dying down anytime soon.
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