Michael Jackson’s family has filed court papers indicating that they plans to seek a new trial in their wrongful death lawsuit against concert promoter AEG, according to Reuters. A California jury determined in October that AEG was not responsible for the singer’s death in 2009. On Monday, attorneys for Jackson’s mother, Katherine, and his three children filed a two-page document that cites misconduct in the jury of the trial and insufficient evidence as reasons they should be granted a new one. The document, which they filed with the Los Angeles County Superior Court, also indicated the family had new, yet-to-be-detailed evidence to present.
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In the original trial, which lasted five months, the Jacksons sought $1.5 billion in damages. Their lawsuit accused AEG of negligence when it hired Conrad Murray to attend to the singer as Jackson’s physician, claiming Murray was unfit to treat the pop star. Murray administered the lethal dose of the anesthetic propofol that killed the singer in 2009 and he was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in 2011. Murray served two years of his four-year sentence; he was released in October under a California plan to alleviate prison overcrowding. The Jacksons’ suit claimed that AEG was more interested in money than the artist’s welfare, as it booked a 50-date run in London.
Ultimately, a jury determined after deliberating for days that while AEG had indeed hired Murray, the doctor was not incompetent to treat Jackson, as the singer’s family had claimed, making it a victory for the concert promoter. “The jury heard what poor condition Michael Jackson was in, how he had deteriorated, he was frail, underweight, he wasn’t going to be able to do the 50 shows,” AEG Live’s senior vice president Shawn Trell said at the time. “Then when it came to damages, somehow he was going to tour more from age 50 to 66 than he did at any point in his life. The jury could pick up on that. They couldn’t have it both ways.”
[Rolling Stone]