(CNS) Posted Tuesday May 3, 2011 – 10:25am
A judge presiding over Katherine Jackson's negligence lawsuit against AEG Live said today she will also manage a case filed by the late King of Pop's father.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos's ruling on Monday does not consolidate the cases into one, but does mean that Joe Jackson's case will no longer be heard by a separate judge.
Joe Jackson is suing Dr. Conrad Murray, alleging wrongful death in Michael Jackson's June 25, 2009, death due to complications from an overdose of propofol. Katherine Jackson's suit alleges AEG Live is responsible for the medical decisions made by Murray.
Lawyers for Katherine Jackson and AEG Live said they preferred not having the case linked with the other lawsuit.
Joe Jackson's case -- which until now was before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Johnson -- alleges Murray was negligent in administering propofol to Jackson and that he did not tell paramedics that he gave the singer the drug.
Murray is also criminally charged with involuntary manslaughter in the singer's death and his trial was delayed this week from May 9 until September.
The issue of whether the Jackson lawsuits should be assigned to one judge came about when the Jackson family patriarch's lawyer, Brian Oxman, filed a ``notice of related cases' with Palazuelos. Oxman said he was agreeable to either Palazuelos or Johnson hearing the case.
Because Katherine Jackson's is the older of the two lawsuits, Superior Court rules stated that Palazuelos should make the decision whether to have both of them before her.
Palazuelos heard arguments last Wednesday and took the matter under submission.
Lawyers for AEG Live said the cases have nothing to do with each other.
``Whereas the vast majority of the factual allegations in Joseph Jackson's complaint concern the day of Michael Jackson's death and subsequent events, the allegations in Katherine Jackson's complaint almost entirely concern events prior to Michael Jackson's death,' the AEG Live court papers stated.
Katherine Jackson's lawyers concurred, saying in their court papers that her case has ``the distinct factual and legal issues of AEG's direct negligence and whether or not it employed Dr. Conrad Murray.'
Copyright © 2011 City News Service
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