{"id":1847,"date":"2024-07-18T20:06:21","date_gmt":"2024-07-18T20:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/michael-jackson-music-catalog-sale-fight-estate-scores-court-win\/"},"modified":"2024-07-18T20:06:21","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T20:06:21","slug":"michael-jackson-music-catalog-sale-fight-estate-scores-court-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/michael-jackson-music-catalog-sale-fight-estate-scores-court-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson Music Catalog Sale Fight: Estate Scores Court Win"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tMichael Jackson\u2019s estate has won a tentative court ruling that would allow it to proceed with a $600 million sale of the singer\u2019s catalog to Sony Music, overcoming objections from his mother that aimed to block the deal.<\/p>\n

\n\tKatherine Jackson had argued that the gargantuan deal violated the terms of Michael\u2019s will, but a California appeals court tentatively ruled Wednesday (July 17) that she had \u201cforfeited\u201d that argument by failing to make it before a lower probate court.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven if she had properly raised that argument, the appeals court said the estate\u2019s executors had the power to make the deal. The court said Jackson\u2019s will had vested the executors (John Branca<\/strong> and John McClain<\/strong>) with the authority to \u201csell, invest, or otherwise manage estate property\u201d while they were in charge.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe court is tentatively inclined to affirm the probate court\u2019s order granting the executors\u2019 request to proceed with the proposed transaction,\u201d the appeals court wrote in its ruling, obtained by Billboard<\/em>. \u201cWe tentatively conclude that Katherine\u2019s challenge fails on the merits because the probate court\u2019s order does not violate the terms of Michael\u2019s will.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSuch \u201ctentative\u201d rulings must be finalized before they are formally entered, but they strongly indicate the way the court is planning to rule. An attorney for Katherine did not return a request for comment on Thursday. A rep for the Jackson estate declined to comment. News of the tentative ruling was first reported by Rolling Stone<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs reported by Billboard<\/em> earlier this year, the Jackson estate and Sony Music have reached a deal that will see the music giant buy half of the singer\u2019s publishing and recorded masters catalog for more than $600 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut because the Jackson estate is still pending before a Los Angeles probate court more than 15 years after his 2009 death, his executors took the then-confidential deal to Judge Mitchell Beckloff<\/strong> for approval. When they did so, Katherine filed objections \u2014 among them that the sale \u201cviolated Michael\u2019s wishes\u201d and that the catalog would likely continue to gain value over time if retained.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn April 2023, Beckloff rejected those objections and ruled that the deal could move forward. Katherine then filed an appeal, resulting in Wednesday\u2019s tentative decision.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe wrangling over the Sony deal has exposed rifts among Jackson\u2019s heirs. In March, Jackson\u2019s son Blanket asked the judge to stop his grandmother from using estate money to fund her efforts to block the Sony deal. Though both had initially opposed the sale, Blanket and Jackson\u2019s other children accepted the probate judge\u2019s decision allowing it to move forward.<\/p>\n

\n\tLater that same week, the estate responded to claims from Katherine\u2019s attorneys that she needed estate money to pay for her legal battle, arguing she had received more than $55 million since the singer\u2019s death. The estate\u2019s executors argued that \u201cvirtually no request of Mrs. Jackson for her care or maintenance has been declined,\u201d including more than $33 million in cash.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Jackson\u2019s estate has won a tentative court ruling that would allow it to proceed with a $600 million sale of the singer\u2019s catalog to Sony Music, overcoming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2571,143,70,835,1684,1244,593,269,832,834],"class_list":["post-1847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-catalog","tag-court","tag-estate","tag-fight","tag-jackson","tag-michael","tag-music","tag-sale","tag-scores","tag-win"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}