Melissa Etheridge is facing a lawsuit over her brief foray into the cannabis business, filed by two partners in Northern California who claim the singer “abandoned them” and left them in “financial ruin.”
The Grammy-winning songwriter, who rose to stardom in the 1990s with hits like “Come to My Window” and “I'm The Only One,” announced in 2019 that she would launch Etheridge Farms, which aimed to offers the benefits of cannabis. in middle-aged women. “They're looking for cannabis, and I want Etheridge Farms to be there to answer what they're looking for,” the singer said at the time.
But five years later, her former partners now claim that Etheridge and her wife effectively torpedoed the company by refusing to support her. In a legal brief filed on July 9 and received by Advertising sign, Josephine and D'Angelo Roberto they say they are “left with nothing”.
“The Robertos trusted the Etheridges and invested their life's work in the business,” the attorney writes Christopher Frost of the law firm Frost LLP, representing the Robertos. “Unfortunately, their hard work did not result in a success story, but rather betrayal and abandonment.”
A filing is a request for arbitration, which initiates a court-like case that will proceed similar to a lawsuit. However, such cases, often required under corporate operating agreements, are decided by an arbitrator in camera rather than a judge in an open courtroom.
Representatives for the Etheridges, including their attorney who received the arbitration request, did not return repeated requests for comment on the dispute. Attorneys for the Robertos declined to comment.
A budding partnership
The Robertos (nicknamed Jozee and Cricket) say they met Etheridge and her wife Linda Wallem-Etheridge through mutual friends in Northern California in 2017, and that the four then had a plan to launch a series of cannabis businesses, including Etheridge Farms and Etheridge Botanicals. In 2019 article in San Jose Mercury Newsthe singer said she was partly inspired by using cannabis while battling breast cancer in the 2000s.
“I came out of chemotherapy saying, I want to be an advocate for this, I believe in this as a medicine so deeply,” she told the Mercury News. “I started looking around California going, okay, what should I do — I want to be a part of this — I actually turned to my friends and said, I want to be the face of cannabis.” In the same article, Jozee was quoted as saying that the Etheridges “really share the same values that Cricket and I share about health and wellbeing”.
According to legal filings, the group secured a lease in 2018 on a large facility in Soquel, California to manufacture and distribute its products, and also locked in key regulatory approvals for that property.
The plan, according to the Robertos, was for the couple to contribute their extensive expertise in the cannabis industry and work on product development, while the Etheridges would use their celebrity status to promote the business, seek outside investors and continue to support the business financially.
Left high and dry?
But while the Robertos say they “put every ounce of their money, time and attention” into the business, they claim the Etheridges failed to do the same. They say he failed to promote the business and subsequently stopped supporting the business financially. According to legal filings, by 2020 this allegedly included failing to pay rent on the Soquel facility as promised. When the owner finally got them going, the Robertos say it cost the business critical regulatory permits attached to that property.
“Despite their persistent efforts, following the Etheridges' complete lack of commitment and financial support to the Etheridge entities, the LLC's sales and performance ultimately disappeared,” the couple's attorneys wrote in the arbitration request.
The supposed collapse of the business came amid great personal tragedy for Etheridge. In May 2020, the singer announced that Beckett Cypher, her son with ex-partner Julie Cypher, died of causes related to opioid addiction. Months later, the singer founded the Etheridge Foundation to support and advocate for research into new treatments for opioid addiction.
These tragic events are not directly mentioned in the new legal filings, but the Robertos' attorneys are citing them in their case.
“The Etheridges have suffered personal losses for which the Robertos have great empathy,” the couple's lawyers wrote in a filing earlier this month. “However, despite these personal losses and given the challenges facing the parties, the Etheridges ultimately decided to let all of the joint ventures 'die on the vine', stopped covering the costs they had promised to pay, and left the Robertos in large part. worse situation”.
In technical terms, the demand for arbitration accuses the Etheridges of breaching their fiduciary duty to the companies. breach of their contract with the Robertos. breaking legal promises made to the couple; and making fraudulent and negligent misrepresentations.
The couple is seeking an unspecified amount in damages, but say they are entitled to at least $3 million: “The Robertos have not brought this action and are not pursuing arbitration for reputation or property or as a vendetta,” their lawyers write. “But, they are simply seeking compensation for the suffering they have had to endure and the financial ruin they have experienced because of the abandonment of the Etheridges.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/melissa-etheridge-failed-cannabis-business-legal-dispute/