Kanye West files RM43 mln lawsuit over cancelled tour
LOS ANGELES: Singer Kanye West is suing various syndicates of insurer Lloyd’s of London, alleging they are stalling on paying out claims stemming from a cancelled tour.
When West cancelled the tour last November, he submitted to an interrogation under oath. Yet possibly because of drug use, his insurers haven’t paid up on money allegedly owed.
From an infamous concert in San Jose, California, on Nov 17 to a visit to Trump Tower a few weeks later, West had observers buzzing about his behaviour last year. Even though he was hospitalised at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital Centre, few knew the full extent of what West endured in the aftermath of a psychological breakdown.
Now The Hollywood Reporter has obtained details on the US$10 million (RM43 million) lawsuit that details an extensive medical examination of the music star.
A loss claim was tendered just two days after West checked himself into a psychiatric centre, but he and his company — Very Good Touring, Inc. — still have not been paid more than eight months later, according to the suit.
“Nor have they provided anything approaching a coherent explanation about why they have not paid, or any indication if they will ever pay or even make a coverage decision, implying that Kanye’s use of marijuana may provide them with a basis to deny the claim and retain the hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance premiums paid by Very Good,” states a complaint
The stalling is emblematic of a broader modus operandi of the insurers of never-ending post-claim underwriting where the insurers hunt for some contrived excuse not to pay.
filed on Tuesday in California federal court. “The stalling is emblematic of a broader modus operandi of the insurers of neverending post-claim underwriting where the insurers hunt for some contrived excuse not to pay.”
West originally planned a “Saint Pablo Tour” consisting of 38 events between Aug 12 and Nov 2, 2016. His managers reached out to Lloyd’s to get “peace of mind” in case cancellations needed to occur. The star made most of the dates but was forced to cancel two concerts when his wife,
Complaint filed
Kim Kardashian, was robbed at gunpoint in Paris on Oct 2.
Thanks to the success of the tour, though, additional dates were arranged. The second performance during this leg of the tour was where everything started to fall apart.
In San Jose, West told the crowd, “I said something that was politically incorrect. I told you I didn’t vote, but if I were to have voted, I would have voted for Trump.” He was booed. Two days later, West appeared for a concert in Sacramento and launched a 15-minute tirade about various public figures.
West’s lawsuit addresses this latter concert and notes the “strained, confused and erratic” behaviour in Sacramento, as well as the decision made the following day to cancel the balance of the tour and issue full refunds. He was soon hospitalised at UCLA, and the insurance companies were informed and later provided with sworn testimony from his primary physician there that West suffered a debilitating medical condition that required that he not tour.