National Post (National Edition)
Why Kanye West and the insurer Lloyd’s are set for one of the ugliest celebrity legal battles in years.
KANYE’S $10-MILLION INSURANCE BATTLE WITH LLOYD’S PROMISES TO GET UGLY
Lloyd’s, the Londonbased insurance underwriter, is proud of its reputation as the company that “specializes in unusual risks.” They include: the legs of Betty Grable, Rudolf Nureyev, Michael Flatley and David Beckham; the breasts of Dolly Parton; the hands of Keith Richards; and, moving away from body parts, the 69.42-carat diamond Richard Burton bought for Elizabeth Taylor.
The company’s vintage (founded in 1688) and its ye olde nickname (Lloyd’s used to be called Lloyd’s of London) gives it a special aura. Some call Lloyd’s “venerable.”
But Kanye West does not venerate Lloyd’s. He and his company Very Good Touring are engaged in a battle with the insurance underwriting giant over a multimilliondollar policy purchased for West’s 2016 Saint Pablo Tour to cover the possibility it might get cancelled, which some part of it did.
And now West’s lawsuit against Lloyd’s, filed in a federal court in California this week, is shaping up to be one of the ugliest superstar insurance disputes since Michael Jackson’s estate took on Lloyd’s for concert losses due to his death in 2009.
A quick summary: West paid his premiums, hundreds of thousands of dollars of them. Lloyd’s hasn’t paid the millions West is seeking to cover the losses from the cancellation. West believes the company is trying to use “unfounded” allegations about marijuana use as a reason for not paying, the lawsuit says.
And he accuses Lloyd’s of trying to smear him with news leaks in an effort to get him to back off.
Lloyd’s has yet to respond to the lawsuit and declined a Washington Post request for comment on the substance of the lawsuit.
West’s tour was riddled with problems. It was split into two legs and began on Aug. 12, 2016, and ran for 36 shows without incident.
Then on Oct. 2, Kim Kardashian was robbed of more than $10 million in jewelry at gunpoint in her hotel room during Paris Fashion Week. West received the news mid-concert, which he abruptly ended, saying, “I’m sorry, family emergency, I have to stop the show.”
He then postponed two upcoming shows.
Then on Nov. 3, West stopped a show about an hour in, citing failing vocal cords.
Things took an even stranger turn two days into the second leg of the tour during his Nov. 18 show in San Jose, Calif., when West paused the show to give a monologue. That’s not uncommon for the rapper, but he appeared more erratic than usual. Parts of the country were still stunned by the election of Donald Trump as president and West told the crowd, “I told y’all I didn’t vote, right? But if I would have voted, I would have voted on Trump.”
The next evening during a concert in Sacramento, Calif., West stopped his show to go on a bizarre 17-minute stream-of-consciousness tirade, during which he criticized his fellow musicians and compared himself to Trump.
He didn’t finish the show and soon news reports surfaced that he had been voluntarily hospitalized for exhaustion Nov. 21. According to the lawsuit, he remained at Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at the University of California, Los Angeles for eight days.
Meanwhile, West cancelled the remainder of his North American tour dates.
On Nov. 22, TMZ reported unnamed sources claimed West was placed on “psychiatric hold” after becoming violent when police came to take him to the hospital. It also reported he suffered from “temporary psychosis.”
On Dec. 3, TMZ reported West “long suffered from psychological issues controllable by medication,” but “deviated from his prescribed dosage,” which “led to the downward spiral and eventual mental breakdown.”
West’s suit against Lloyd’s and a number of syndicates that insured his tour is unsparing. Lloyd’s, it claims, refuses to make a decision on the claim and has given no reason for failing to pay, but rather has stalled the process.
Lloyd’s has suggested, West’s lawyers said in the suit, “that they may deny coverage of the claim on the unsupportable contention that use of marijuana by Kanye caused the medical condition” that led to cancellation of the tour.
By contrast, West’s lawyers portray the erratic performer as a paragon of a client, who has co-operated every step along the way.
Lloyd’s, in a statement emailed to the Washington Post, just wouldn’t get into it. “We cannot comment on the specifics of this legal case,” Lloyd’s spokesman wrote.
West is demanding $10 million.