Lloyd’s of London have sued AEG Live and Michael Jackson’s company because Lloyd’s of London wants to nullify a $17.5 million dollar policy that promoters took out. Underwriters feel that the promotors lied about the singer’s medical history when the policy was taken out.
In 2009, Michael Jackson was preparing for his “This Is It” tour. This was going to be a series of 50 concerts that would be taking place at the O2 arena, in London, England. The tour had been described as his “London comeback” tour. Tickets for this tour sold out really quickly, and things looked like they would be going very well for The King of Pop. There were hopes that the “This is It” tour would help him to clear at least some of the huge amount of debt that he had accrued.
Unfortunately, before even one concert for the “This is It” tour started, Michael Jackson passed away. He was fifty years old when he died at the home he was renting in Los Angeles, California.
Several news outlets stated that the cause of death was an overdose of a drug called Propofol, which is a type of anesthetic. The drug was administered to him by his personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray. The doctor is set to stand trial in September of 2011, and has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
AEG Live is the company that took out a multi million dollar insurance policy with Lloyd’s of London on the “This is It” tour concerts. It is not unusual for promotion companies to do that. In this case, the policy was designed to cover the cancellation or postponement of the concert series in case Michael Jackson had an accident or illness that caused him to be unable to perform. The policy was also supposed to provide coverage in case Michael Jackson died.
A lawyer from AEG submitted a claim to Lloyd’s of London just a few days after Michael Jackson’s death. However, Lloyd’s of London is not going to pay out on the insurance policy. The insurer has asked a judge to nullify the $17.5 million dollar insurance policy, because of a few big problems.
Lloyd’s of London says that AEG failed to give them Michael Jackson’s complete medical history when the insurance policy was created. Specifically, the insurer said it was not told about the singer’s misuse of prescription drugs (or potential drug addiction). AEG did not tell Lloyd’s of London that the singer was using Propofol to help him sleep.
The insurer also claims that it was AEG who hired Dr. Conrad Murray as Michael Jackson’s physician. The implication is that perhaps there was something nefarious going on between AEG and the doctor, I suppose. Another problem is that the insurer required Michael Jackson to have a medical examination, but he didn’t have one. Also, Lloyd’s of London claims that AEG said that Michael Jackson had not seen any doctors since 2005, except for a cosmetic specialist.
Image by Antonio Manfredonio on Flickr