Paris Jackson asked a judge on Oct. 29 to reject John Branca's $109 million fee request and cut his pay rate. The Jackson estate calls the motion meritless.
Paris Jackson is asking a judge to throw out a nearly $110 million fee request from John Branca, the executor of her father Michael Jackson's estate, and to cut his pay going forward. Rolling Stone, which obtained the new court filing, reported on Oct. 29 that she calls the request "offensive" and accuses Branca of "persistent incompetence."
What Paris Jackson is asking for
According to Rolling Stone, the 12-page motion says Branca missed his own Sept. 15 deadline to file complete financial accountings for 2023 and 2024. The documents he did file were incomplete or, in the motion's words, "nothing more than a placeholder."
Even so, Branca requested $109,219,648 in combined compensation for himself, his lawyers and the late co-executor John McClain, who died in May at age 71. Paris Jackson wants the retired judge overseeing the estate to lower Branca's pay from 15 percent to 10 percent of the estate's gross entertainment-related income. She wants that change applied retroactively to 2003 and kept in place until he files complete and accurate accountings through 2006.
The estate's response
A spokesperson for the Branca-led estate told Rolling Stone the motion is "completely without merit." The statement says the executors waived executor compensation from the start and have never taken any. According to the spokesperson, they are instead paid a separate, court-ordered management fee for running the Michael Jackson business.
That distinction matters, and it is the heart of the dispute: the two sides are describing the same money in very different terms. Neither side's account has been tested by the court yet.
Background
Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009, at age 50. Branca stepped in to manage his affairs, and his lawyers have long said they turned an estate carrying more than $500 million in debt into a business worth roughly $2 billion, per Rolling Stone.
This is not the first clash. Rolling Stone says Paris Jackson won a separate fight about six months ago, when retired judge Mitchell Beckloff ordered three lawyers who worked for the estate to return $625,000 in bonuses authorized by Branca. In an April 29 ruling, Beckloff wrote that the bonus amounts "appear arbitrary." Paris, 28, is a beneficiary of the estate along with her brothers, Prince, 29, and Bigi, 24. Her lawyers said in other filings that the litigation is painful for her.
Our take
This is an allegation in a motion, not a finding, and the estate flatly rejects it. Still, the April ruling gives her side real momentum, because the same judge has already said he wanted a detailed basis for fees. For anyone who follows the Jackson catalog, the practical question is how much of the estate's income is going to fees, and a ruling on the 15 percent rate would be the clearest answer yet.
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Picture credit: Photo: Joseph2027 (CC0)
