Promoter wins Jackson death lawsuit
Michael Jackson's father Joe Jackson arrives for the trial of Conrad Murray in Los Angeles (AP/Jason Redmond)
A US judge granted a motion to dismiss concert promoter AEG Live from a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Michael Jackson's father.
City News Service said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos agreed with AEG lawyers who said Joe Jackson should have joined a separate suit filed by his wife, Katherine.
The judge said the law does not favour multiple suits by individual heirs.
She said that to allow Joe Jackson's suit against AEG Live to go forward would "allow the heirs of a decedent to file as many suits as there are heirs". "Allowing Joseph Jackson to continue with his subsequent suit against AEG Live, alleging the same wrongful death claims as the related case, would contravene the purpose of the one-action rule," she said.
AEG also argued that Joe Jackson is not a legitimate heir to his son's fortune. The father was not mentioned in the King of Pop's will. "At the time Michael Jackson died, (his father) was estranged from his son, who repeatedly and publicly accused him of physical and other abuse," the AEG Live court papers said.
The decision leaves Dr Conrad Murray and Applied Pharmacy Services of Las Vegas as the only defendants in Joe Jackson's suit. Murray is in jail after having been convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Michael Jackson's death. He says he is broke.
Katherine Jackson alleges in her suit that AEG Live is responsible for medical decisions made by Murray.
AEG Live lawyer Marvin Putnam called the ruling a major victory for the entertainment giant.
Joe Jackson's lawyer Maureen Jaroscak called it a temporary setback and suggested that Jackson, 83, might now try to become a party to his wife's lawsuit.
Michael Jackson died in June 2009 from an overdose of the anaesthetic propofol, which Murray was administering to him as a sleep medication.
Press Association
