On February 2nd, Katherine’s lawyers filed a motion to join Quadree El-Amin, Broderick Morris, Aldean King and Raymone Bain lawsuit against Michael Jackson Estate. I reported about this lawsuit earlier at the “Who owns the Michael Jackson Company?” blog post in detail.
In short; El-Amin, Morris, King and Bain claimed combined 15% ownership at the Michael Jackson Company. They claimed Michael signed one page document at 3 AM at a Tokyo hotel room. This document also listed 10% ownership interest for Katherine Jackson.
MJ Estate argued the Michael Jackson Company’s incorporation documents only listed Michael as the sole member. Bain and King in their creditor claims filed after Michael’s death did not mention any ownership at the MJ Company. These ownership claims were only raised in 2012 – 2014. This made MJ Estate to question the credibility of the claims.
In anticipation of ownership claims, MJ Estate filed an 850 motion with the probate court asking the court to determine the ownership of MJ Company. This was followed by a civil lawsuit by El-Amin, Morris, King and Bain. After disagreements about the competing actions, court decided Estate’s 850 motion takes precedent.
Attempts to stop Estate’s 850 motion included a declaration from Randy Jackson around December 2015 questioning validity of Michael’s Will. A bench trial happened between December 2015 and February 2016. There have been multiple briefs following the trial testimony as recent as at November 2016. Judge Stratton has yet to rule about the 850 motion.
Document : Katherine Jackson's request to join the case https://www.scribd.com/document/339072775/Katherine-Jackson-Motion-to-Intervene-to-El-Amin-Bain
On February 2nd, 2017 Katherine filed a request to join this lawsuit. Documents stated that Katherine wants to protect her 10% ownership interest in the Michael Jackson Company. The document stated that Katherine learned about this case from other people (most probably Randy Jackson) and she was unable to intervene until now due to sensitive reasons (most probably due to the elder abuse claims). The documents also included a declaration by Katherine Jackson signed at London, England.
The significance of this claim is that Michael Jackson Company was used in TII deals (both the concert and the movie). TII movie grossed over $250 Million and combined revenues exceeded $500 Million. If plaintiffs succeed in this lawsuit, Katherine can get 10% of these revenues while El-Amin, Morris, King and Bain can get the 15%. Estate will be left with 75%.
In an 100% Michael / Estate ownership, the revenues goes to Estate which is used and/or put aside for the beneficiaries including Katherine. So Katherine benefits either way. However a 10% ownership would mean getting more money directly for Katherine.
It is too early to say what will happen. Personally I would expect the judge to grant Katherine’s request and allow her to join the case as a plaintiff. However the 850 motion hasn’t been decided yet. If the court rules that Michael was the sole owner of the Michael Jackson Company, Katherine’s request to join to the civil case will become moot. Hearing is set for April 19, 2017.