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Rick Ross can’t bail on cancelled gig case because his business associates negotiated deal

By | Published on Friday 6 July 2018

Rick Ross

A US judge has refused to throw out a lawsuit against Rick Ross over a cancelled show. Said judge ruled that the rapper can’t sidestep liability for the cancellation, and the subsequent alleged failure to return advances, simply because a third party negotiated the original deal to play on his behalf.

Ross was booked to play a stadium venue near Pittsburgh last summer. He pulled out at the very last minute citing ill-health. The owners of the venue then went legal in August, claiming that more than half of a $150,000 deposit it had paid to Ross’s reps for the show was yet to be returned following the cancellation.

Ross and various business associates were named as defendants in the lawsuit. He has since tried to get himself excused from the litigation on the basis that he wasn’t part of the conversation or deal making with venue owner WCFE ahead of the show.

However, according to Law 360, US judge Lisa Lenihan has ruled that that fact is irrelevant given entertainment industry norms. She stated this week: “Ross’s arguments in support of dismissal primarily centre around the alleged lack of dealings between WCFE and Ross. Most of these arguments crumble after taking … agency principles into account”.

The ruling goes on: “The fact that Ross spends the bulk of his brief disclaiming liability on the grounds that it was not he, but other individuals and entities … that had dealing with WCFE and each other, while at the same time conveniently failing to address the alleged intertwining relationships between himself and those entities … confirms that it would be premature to decide these issues on a motion to dismiss”.

So, the case continues.



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