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Michael Jackson Probate Easier After Estate Settles Lawsuits

There are very few probate court dockets that are as complicated or famous as the Michael Jackson files. The interested parties and beneficiaries are involved in a maze of lawsuits, counter-claims, bankruptcies, child support cases and liens.

But the whole thing just got at least a little bit easier after Michael Jackson’s estate settled two lawsuits, one each as a plaintiff and defendant. The first case where the estate was a defendant was filed against them by moviemaker John Landis. This case was a dispute over rights to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video.

Landis had filed suit against Jackson before his death in a bid to recover $2 million in pending dues for production of the video. After Jackson died, Landis filed against the estate and the case had been dragging on for three years in Los Angeles Superior court. Now the Michael Jackson estate says they have settled this lawsuit, although the settlement terms were not disclosed.

At about the same time, the estate also settled another lawsuit in which it was the plaintiff. This was a copyright dispute between Jackson’s estate and Howard Mann, who is a business partner of Katherine Jackson, the late King of Pop’s mother.

Mann had apparently published Katherine Jackson’s coffee table book titled “Never Can Say Goodbye: The Katherine Jackson Story.” The dispute was about the unauthorized use of Michael Jackson’s images and lyrics on the website setup by Mann called MichaelJacksonSecretVault.com.       

Katherine Jackson was not a defendant in this lawsuit, although her lawyer was apparently instrumental in getting the Jackson estate’s administrators to sit down with Mann and the associated companies involved for a settlement. Under the terms of the agreement, the Jackson estate gets $2.5 million from the defendants.

Howard Mann had previously purchased a lot of Jackson memorabilia following Katherine Jackson’s bankruptcy filing in 1999. Pending payment of the settlement amount, the judge ordered a lien to be placed on these memorabilia.