The California Appeal court’s final ruling is allowing Michael Jackson’s estate to move forward with the $600 million sale of his catalog to Sony Music, despite objections from his mother that aimed to block the deal. Katherine Jackson claimed the sale “violated Michael’s wishes,” but an Appeal court says the star’s will gave his executors “broad powers” to ink offers. A month after the Court of Appeal issued a tentative ruling against Katherine Jackson, the court has reached a definitive conclusion on Wednesday in favour of the estate’s executors in confirmation that (John Branca and John McClain) didn’t breach the terms of Michael’s will when they inked the gargantuan deal with Sony.
The court wrote, “The will gave the executors broad powers of sale, with no exception for the specific assets at issue in this case. As such, (a lower judge) did not err in concluding that it was Michael’s intent to allow the executors to sell any estate assets, including those at issue in the proposed transaction.” The court not only considered the deal’s merits but also dismissed Katherine’s appeal due to the fact that she had forfeited to raise arguments before a lower probate court.
Katherine can still appeal the ruling to the California Supreme Court, though her odds of overturning the ruling are low. As reported earlier this year, the Jackson estate and Sony Music have reached an agreement that the music giant acquire half of the singer’s publishing and r.