The California Appeal court’s final ruling is allowing Michael Jackson’s estate to move forward with the $600 million sale of his catalog to Sony Music, despite objections from his mother that aimed to block the deal.
Katherine Jackson claimed the sale “violated Michael’s wishes,” but an Appeal court says the star’s will gave his executors “broad powers” to ink offers.
A month after the Court of Appeal issued a tentative ruling against Katherine Jackson, the court has reached a definitive conclusion on Wednesday in favour of the estate’s executors in confirmation that (John Branca and John McClain) didn’t breach the terms of Michael’s will when they inked the gargantuan deal with Sony.
The court wrote, “The will gave the executors broad powers of sale, with no exception for the specific assets at issue in this case. As such, (a lower judge) did not err in concluding that it was Michael’s intent to allow the executors to sell any estate assets, including those at issue in the proposed transaction.”
The court not only considered the deal’s merits but also dismissed Katherine’s appeal due to the fact that she had forfeited to raise arguments before a lower probate court.
Katherine can still appeal the ruling to the California Supreme Court, though her odds of overturning the ruling are low.
As reported earlier this year by Arise TV, the Jackson estate and Sony Music have reached an agreement that the music giant acquire half of the singer’s publishing and recorded masters catalog for over $600 million.
Jackson estate’s prolonged probate court proceedings led the executors to seek approval for the deal with Judge Mitchell Beckloff 15 years after his 2009 death. Katherine raised objections, including concerns that the sale “violated Michael’s wishes” and that retaining the catalog could potentially increase its value over time.
In April 2023, Beckloff dismissed those objections and allowed the deal to proceed. Katherine then appealed, leading to the recent Wednesday’s ruling.
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In the new decision, The court dismissed a number of arguments from Katherine, inclusive of her claim that the sale would violate inheritance rules by preventing all of Michael’s assets from being transferred to his heirs. The court cited Michael’s will, which granted Branca and McClain with “full power and authority“ to make such deals while managing the estate.
The court emphasized that “the proposed transaction is not a gift or distribution of estate assets but rather an asset sale pursuant to which the estate receives a significant monetary payment and interest in a joint venture.
While the proposed transaction will result in the estate exchanging assets for cash and other valuable rights, it neither diminishes the estate’s value nor impairs the executors’ future ability to transfer the estate’s assets to the trust.”
The disputes surrounding the Sony deal have revealed divisions among Jackson’s heirs. In March, Blanket, Jackson’s son, requested the judge to prevent his grandmother from using estate funds to oppose the deal. Despite their initial opposition, Blanket and Jackson’s other children eventually accepted the probate judge’s ruling to proceed with the sale.
Later that same week, the estate responded to claims from Katherine’s attorneys that she needed estate money to pay for her legal battle, arguing she had received more than $55 million since the singer’s death. The estate’s executors argued that “virtually no request of Mrs. Jackson for her care or maintenance has been declined,” including more than $33 million in cash.
