A family divide has emerged over whether Michael Jackson’s estate should bankroll his mother Katherine’s ongoing legal battle against the estate’s executors.
The battle centers around the estate’s recent $600 million deal to sell a portion of the King of Pop’s music catalog to Sony Music.
Court filings obtained by Billboard reveal that Michael’s youngest son, Blanket (now going by Bigi), is asking a Los Angeles judge to prohibit the estate from using its funds to finance Katherine’s pending appeal. She is challenging last year’s ruling that allowed co-executors John Branca and John McClain to proceed with the lucrative Sony transaction.
Initially, both Bigi and Katherine objected to the proposed deal with Sony. However, after the judge greenlighted the sale, Bigi and his siblings accepted the decision while Katherine opted to file an appeal that remains unresolved. She has requested over $561,000 from the estate to cover legal fees for her original objections and the current appeal.
In his filing this week, Bigi argues it would be “unfair” to force him and his siblings to shoulder the costs of Katherine’s appeal efforts, which he describes as facing “long odds” of success given the judge’s “reasoned and detailed” initial ruling.
While acknowledging the estate should cover Katherine’s legal expenses for her initial objections that provided “essential evidence” beneficial to all heirs, Bigi believes funding her “meritless appeal” would be improper. He questioned whether Katherine truly required four high-priced attorneys billing $840 to $1,400 per hour.
Blanket argued any legal fees for the ongoing appeal should be entirely denied, since the ruling allowing the deal to proceed had been “reasoned and detailed.”
“Katherine’s petition has the practical effect of requiring Bigi and his siblings pay for her appeal,” the filing states. “It would be unfair to make those beneficiaries shoulder this burden when they expressly decided an appeal would not be in their best interests.”
An attorney for Katherine Jackson did not respond to requests for comment. Representatives for Michael Jackson’s estate declined to comment on the matter.
The rift highlights escalating tensions within the family over the multimillion-dollar Sony deal for Michael’s music rights and assets.
