LOS ANGELES (AP) — A lawsuit over the payout of a $17.5 million policy related to Michael Jackson’s planned comeback concerts has been settled, attorneys told a judge on Wednesday.
Lawyers for Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s of London and Jackson’s estate announced the settlement before a hearing that would have altered what evidence would be presented at trial. Lawyers for the insurer and Jackson’s estate did not know how the judge was planning to rule before announcing they had resolved the case.
Lloyd’s sued Jackson’s estate in 2011 seeking to nullify a non-appearance and concert cancellation policy that it issued roughly two months before Jackson’s death in June 2009. The insurer contended that an examination of Jackson that was required for the policy was not completed and the promoter of the “This Is It” shows did not disclose everything it knew about the singer’s health when it took out the policy.
Howard Weitzman, an attorney for Jackson’s estate and Paul K. Shrieffer, who represented Lloyd’s, declined to offer details about the resolution.
The case, if it had gone to trial, would have put the focus once again on Jackson’s health in the weeks and months before he died.
A trial had been scheduled for Feb. 24.
The insurer had initially sued Jackson’s concert promoter, AEG Live LLC, but the company was later dismissed.
The case was one of several that continue to be heard in Los Angeles courts focusing on Jackson’s life and untimely death. A judge on Monday refused to order a retrial in a lawsuit filed by Jackson’s mother against AEG Live that contended it negligently hired the doctor convicted of killing her son.
The former cardiologist, Conrad Murray, also has an appeal of his involuntary manslaughter convictions pending.
The settlement of Jackson’s estate also remains pending, with claims by the singer’s former manager yet to be ruled upon.
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