{"id":2340,"date":"2024-08-21T22:56:14","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T22:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/michael-jackson-music-catalog-sale-fight-estate-wins-final-ruling\/"},"modified":"2024-08-21T22:56:14","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T22:56:14","slug":"michael-jackson-music-catalog-sale-fight-estate-wins-final-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/michael-jackson-music-catalog-sale-fight-estate-wins-final-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson Music Catalog Sale Fight: Estate Wins Final Ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tA California appeals court has issued a final ruling that Michael Jackson\u2019s estate can proceed with a $600 million sale of the singer\u2019s catalog to Sony Music, rejecting objections from his mother that aimed to block the deal.<\/p>\n

\n\tA month after the appeals court issued a tentative ruling against Katherine Jackson, the court finalized that decision on Wednesday \u2013 ruling that the estate\u2019s executors (John Branca <\/strong>and John McClain<\/strong>) didn\u2019t violate the terms of Michael\u2019s will when they inked the gargantuan deal with Sony.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe will gave the executors broad powers of sale, with no exception for the specific assets at issue in this case,\u201d the court wrote. \u201cAs such, [a lower judge] did not err in concluding that it was Michael\u2019s intent to allow the executors to sell any estate assets, including those at issue in the proposed transaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBeyond the merits of the deal, the court also rejected Katherine\u2019s appeal for a simpler reason: that she had \u201cforfeited\u201d her arguments by failing to make them before a lower probate court.<\/p>\n

\n\tKatherine\u2019s attorneys did not immediately return a request for comment. She can still appeal the ruling to the California Supreme Court, though her odds of overturning the ruling are low.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs reported by Billboard<\/em> <\/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 ruling.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the new decision, the court rejected a number of key arguments from Katherine, including her claim that the sale would violate basic inheritance rules because it would prevent all of Michael\u2019s assets from being transferred to his heirs. In doing so, the court said Michael\u2019s will vested Branca and McClain with \u201cfull power and authority\u201d to make such deals while in control of the estate.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe proposed transaction is not a gift or distribution of estate assets\u2014it is an asset sale, pursuant to which the estate receives a significant monetary payment and interest in a joint venture,\u201d the court wrote. \u201cWhile the proposed transaction will result in the estate exchanging assets for cash and other valuable rights, it neither diminishes the estate\u2019s value nor impairs the executors\u2019 future ability to transfer the estate\u2019s assets to the trust.\u201d<\/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

\n\tA rep for the estate\u2019s executors declined to comment on Wednesday\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A California appeals court has issued a final ruling that Michael Jackson\u2019s estate can proceed with a $600 million sale of the singer\u2019s catalog to Sony Music, rejecting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2571,70,835,1365,1684,1244,593,686,269,882],"class_list":["post-2340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-catalog","tag-estate","tag-fight","tag-final","tag-jackson","tag-michael","tag-music","tag-ruling","tag-sale","tag-wins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340","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=2340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}