IN ANOTHER sign that a battle is brewing over control of Michael Jackson’s music empire, lawyers for the late pop star’s mother filed court papers on Tuesday accusing the temporary administrators of his estate of “keeping her in the dark” about the state of his affairs.
Lawyers for Katherine Jackson urged a Los Angeles judge to order the administrators, two long-time associates of her son, to submit to depositions and turn over a slew of documents, including the contract that controlled the comeback concert series scuttled by his death.
Such documents are “crucial to the question of the proper administration of the estate . . . and the propriety of naming the temporary special administrators as permanent personal representatives of the estate”, lawyers for Katherine Jackson wrote.
Judge Mitchell Beckloff declined to hold a special hearing on the request and instead added it to the array of issues to be taken up next Monday, when lawyers are due in court to discuss the estate and permanent custody arrangements for Jackson’s three children.
Katherine Jackson (79) initially was appointed temporary administrator of her son’s affairs, but the judge transferred that power to John McClain, a music executive, and John Branca, an entertainment attorney, after they produced a 2002 will naming them executors.
Judge Beckloff is to address the validity of the will at the Monday hearing.
– (LA Times-Washington Post)