Hell froze over. HTWF has just filed their 70 page opening brief.
Summary as follows
- HTWF's one of the most interesting arguments are that HTWF's lawyer Pease has committed fraud, Pease had conflict of interest
- HTWF also blames the district court for not following the trial schedule, not giving HTWF enough time to respond and not allowing Melissa to file on her behalf. They even allege that the court accepting and granting many of Estate's requests shows a favoritism of the Estate or courts desire to close the case.
- HTWF says Estate released false statement saying Melissa had no connection to Michael but actually she a had an ongoing relationship with Michael's managers for a decade.
Now the somewhat interesting parts :
- Melissa claims one night before the trial is supposed to start her lawyer Pease calls her about the settlement. Pease says her that the documents aren't final and binding. Melissa says she did not agree with the terms but she says Pease told her that these terms could be negotiated over the next 30 -45 days. Melissa says Pease told her that signing the documents will also give them a continuance in the trial and Pease wasn't ready for trial.
- Melissa says she also later on saw that Pease's fees would be paid by MJ Estate according to the agreement which Pease hasn't told her before.
- Melissa says she signed the documents based on these explanations thinking they are not binding and they are needed for a continuance. After a while when the Estate complains that they aren't doing what they are supposed to do according to the agreement, Melissa says she called Pease and this time Pease told her that the document she signed was final and binding.
- Melissa also says that her new counsel (the one after Pease) had found out that Pease has submitted an inflated bill to the Estate. Melissa says one month before signing the settlement Pease had sent her an invoice for his fees totaling $94,860 for 316.2 hours at $300 per hour rate. Pease however sent an invoice to MJ Estate first for $612,233 and then a corrected invoice for $638, 356 for 1224 hours at $500 per hour rate. (Ivy's note: Document says Pease was averaging 2.59 hours a day for the first 122 days and then for the last 90 days he billed 9.98 hours a day. HTWF doesn't believe this increase is normal but as the trial dates comes closer the lawyers will be working on the case a lot more)
- Melissa also claims this 4 times the actual fees and costs raises bribery concerns - but we know from other documents that Estate did not pay the fees. But overall the document states that Pease was in need of money and betrayed HTWF for money. They claim as Pease wanted to be paid by the Estate, this brought impairment to his judgment, mislead Melissa.
- We learn that after Melissa opposed to the judgment stating it included her and her assets personally, the court have made an addition to the judgment stating "all references to Melissa in this judgment pertain to her as an agent of HTWF and not to her personal capacity". They aren't happy with this as the order still affects her personal property (Ivy's note : A few trademarks are registered under her name and not HTWF)
- We learn that the judge also ordered Melissa to undo the merger she did with Michael's 1991 HTWF and her 2008 HTWF. Also ordered her 2008 HTWF to be either closed or renamed or make no reference to Michael Jackson. Judge also gave MJ Estate the right to be "attorney in fact" of HTWF and sign the necessary documents for Melissa and HTWF's behalf if Melissa refuses to sign them.
Some interesting tidbits.
Here you can see that they are admitting that Melissa has started her HTWF in 2008 and 1991 MJ's HTWF was a different entity. Some people have been claiming the merged HTWF showed that Melissa had been associated with HTWF since 1991. She wasn't.
Here they are mixing up their stories and claiming Melissa was president of HTWF in 2002 & 2003
I guess Melissa "the President of HTWF" did not get the memo that HTWF wasn't even active in 2002 and had no president. Not everyone can time travel to the past and become a president to a suspended organization and leave no paperwork trail.
"
In late 2002, however, it had net assets of just $3,542 and reported $2,585 in expenses, mostly for “management fees,” according to the latest available tax filings.
As of late 2002, the foundation did not have a director, president or other top manager besides Jackson, who was listed as chairman, records show.
The foundation has been suspended in California since April 2002 for failing to file annual statements required of tax-exempt organizations, said John Barrett, spokesman for the state Franchise Tax Board."
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/4601265/s...oundation-now-virtually-defunct/#.UShV5aWG2So
uke:
