The concert promoters for Michael Jackson's planned 2009 comeback tour have dropped a $17.5 million insurance claim against Lloyd's of London in the wake of leaked emails expressing AEG Live management concerns about the singer's health, according to Reuters.
AEG Live, the concert division of privately held Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), had filed the claim for incurred losses in upfront costs for Jackson's "This Is It" tour that was to start in London in July 2009. Lloyd's later sued AEG in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeking a declaration that the insurance company did not owe the money.
An attorney for AEG Live said the company did not need the insurance settlement because the Jackson estate reimbursed it for the concert-related losses and that it informed Lloyd's in June that it was withdrawing its claim.
Emails obtained and published by the Los Angeles Times on Sept. 2 show that AEG management had long been concerned about whether Jackson would be able to fulfill his obligations. In an email from March 2009, AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips, in London to announce the concerts, wrote that "MJ is locked in his room drunk and despondent…I [am] trying to sober him up."
However, AEG Live attorneys maintain the leaked emails had nothing to do with the company's withdrawal of the insurance claim.
Jackson died in June 2009 at age 50 from an overdose of the powerful anesthetic Propofol and sedatives. His doctor last year was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
The insurance dispute is one of two major court cases stemming from Jackson's death.
The other is a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Jackson's mother, Katherine, against AEG Live in which she accuses the company of being responsible for medical decisions made by Murray. The case is scheduled for trial next year.
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