Lawyers for Madonna and Live Nation say they are facing a “harassment campaign” by lawyers suing over the late start of the singer's concerts, aimed at “extorting a lucrative settlement” rather than actually litigating the case.
The accusatory language came amid a class-action lawsuit accusing Madonna and Live Nation of breaking laws by making fans wait hours at December concerts in Brooklyn on her Celebration tour — one of three such cases filed in the past six months and they all make similar claims.
Over the weekend, the dueling groups of lawyers engaged in a strange back-and-forth. On Friday (June 7), lawyers for the plaintiffs told the judge that the two sides had “reached an agreement” that would end the case. But first thing on Monday morning (June 10), Madonna's legal team flatly denied that any such agreement had been reached: “The parties have not settled this matter.”
“To be clear, the defendants are not necessarily opposed to the settlement if certain conditions can be reached,” he wrote Jeff Warsafsky, a partner at the Proskauer law firm representing Madonna and Live Nation. “But the defendants will not be harassed for a compromise and cannot stand by the false statements made in court.”
In the filing, Madonna's attorney said the two sides had “discussed the possibility of settlement” but that “they have not made any settlement offer” and “we do not know what the plaintiffs believe they are accomplishing or trying to accomplish with the false notification.”
“The false notice is part of a campaign of harassment that plaintiffs' counsel has been waging against the defendants for the past several months in hopes of extorting a lucrative settlement by forcing the defendants to incur unnecessary legal fees,” Warshafsky wrote. “Whatever the plaintiffs' motivation … the defendants believe that the plaintiffs' complaint is completely without merit and intend to fully defend themselves.”
A lawyer for Madonna's accusers did not immediately return a request for comment.
Madonna and Live Nation were first sued in January over the Brooklyn shows — a case that made headlines for claiming fans “had to get up early to go to work” the next day. She was later hit with a similar lawsuit in Washington, DC that claimed fans were waiting in an “uncomfortably hot” arena and that she had lip-synced parts of the show. A third lawsuit, filed last month, echoed those claims, but also claimed Madonna's show was unexpectedly “pornographic.”
All three cases have been filed as class action lawsuits, aimed at representing potentially thousands of other fans who also experienced the alleged delays. By starting the concerts later than expected, the lawsuits allege that Madonna and Live Nation breached their contracts with fans and violated state consumer protection laws.
Madonna's lawyers have strongly denied the allegations. In a motion to dismiss the New York case earlier this year, her lawyers argued that simply having to wake up early was not the kind of “known injury” that can form the basis of a lawsuit. And they say that anyone who buys a concert ticket is well aware that a show probably won't start at the exact time listed on the ticket.
“No reasonable concertgoer — and certainly no Madonna fan — would expect the headliner at a major arena concert to take the stage at the time of the ticketed event,” her legal team wrote in April.
A version of that motion to dismiss the case remains pending. With no deal reached, a response from Madonna's accusers is expected on July 1.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/madonna-lawyers-false-announcement-settlement-delayed-concerts-lawsuit/