Michael Jackson's mother and kids suffered a legal setback Monday when a Los Angeles judge tossed the family's negligence lawsuit against two executives who were working with the King of Pop when he died.
The ruling leaves the men's employer, AEG Live, as the sole defendant in the wrongful death case now in its fifth — and possibly final — month.
The singer's heirs sued AEG along with CEO Randy Phillips and honcho Paul Gongaware in 2010, saying they negligently hired and supervised Dr. Conrad Murray, the personal physician now serving four years for involuntary manslaughter.
AEG has denied any wrongdoing, insisting it was Jackson who hired Murray and secretly begged the doctor to treat his insomnia with the anaesthetic that killed him on June 25, 2009.
Jackson's former wife Debbie Rowe, the mother of his two eldest kids, testified last month that the pop icon used anaesthetic to sleep as far back as 1997 even though she warned him it was risky.
Judge Yvette Palazuelos said Katherine Jackson's lawyers failed to prove Phillips and Gongaware did anything to "control, direct or perpetrate" Michael's drug use inside his rented mansion.
"This is a huge victory for Phillips and Gongaware," said AEG's lead lawyer, Marvin Putnam of O'Melveny & Myers LLP.
"The Jacksons have besmirched their reputations and dragged their good names through the mud without any basis whatsoever."
AEG lawyers have argued that the company never signed a contract with Murray and simply negotiated to pay him $150,000 a month using an artist advance Michael agreed to pay back.
Jurors will have to decide if an internal company email still at the centre of the case refutes AEG's claim.
"We want to remind [Murray] that it is AEG, not MJ who is paying his salary," reads an email from Gongaware sent in the days before Michael's death.
- NYDaily
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