The fight between mom and her grandson over Michael Jackson’s $2 billion estate.

March 22, 2024

The fight between mom and her grandson over Michael Jackson’s $2 billion estate.

Michael Jackson estate refuses to pay Katherine Jackson’s legal bills, as they say she’s already been paid millions, and her grandson Bigi objects to covering her expenses.

In addition, a hearing in a Los Angeles courtroom on Friday, March 22, Katherine Jackson continued to face legal hurdles with the estate of her late son and music icon Michael Jackson.

Attorney John Branca and A&R executive John McClain, the co-executors of Jackson’s estate, received a favorable ruling last year in probate court. The decision, related to a reported $600 million sale of half of Jackson’s music catalog to Sony, allowed them to move forward with the proposed deal — despite Katherine’s objection to it.

In the filing, the executors claim the estate was saddled with debt and on the verge of bankruptcy when Michael Jackson died in June 2009.

• “Exercising the powers granted in Michael’s will as confirmed by the probate court, they entered into business transactions involving the estate’s assets that skyrocketed the estate’s value to over $2 billion,” the recent appellate brief stated. In court, the executor’s attorney Jonathan Steinsapir acknowledged this point and thanked the judge for giving guidance over the years to make the estate so profitable today.
• The estate’s brief claims Katherine was the only party to file a written objection to the sale of the megastar’s assets. According to the estate, she believed they did not exercise “ordinary care and diligence” and argued that it was better “to wait a few years to maximize the value.” Per the brief, the estate also claims Katherine felt that the executors had not sufficiently shopped the “transaction” around to determine fair market value and that the estate should “have obtained a premium payment.” According to Billboard, the music assets are valued at over $1.2 billion.

In December, Katherine filed motions asking the estate to pay for her legal bills stemming from her objections, including the ongoing appellate case. In court filings, Bigi argued that the estate shouldn’t foot the bill, claiming it would be “unfair” to force him and his siblings to pay for that case since his grandmother’s efforts are an “extreme longshot.”

Stay with us…