MTV News is reporting, Bad Boy Entertainment and it's CEO Sean "Diddy" Combs is among listed parties of an $130 million dollar civil suit. Combs recently completed his deposition on the December 1999 NYC shooting. The judge must still decide rather the suit will go to trial and which parties will then follow. From MTV News,
After nearly two years, Sean "Diddy" Combs completed his deposition last week in the $130 million civil lawsuit stemming from the 1999 Club New York shooting that sent the Bad Boy CEO's former protégé, Shyne, to prison, MTV News has learned. According to Shyne's legal counsel, Oscar Michelen, Diddy completed his deposition on Wednesday, which now puts the wheels in motion for a trial date to be set, possibly as soon as early 2009. Diddy's busy schedule, along with litigation from the charges against Shyne, resulted in the hip-hop mogul's deposition being stretched out over time. Bad Boy employee Derek Ferguson is the next and last party scheduled for deposition, Michelen said.
Combs' lawyers responded to the story telling MTV News. "Mr. Combs was acquitted by a jury of all charges related to this 1999 incident and we are confident that he will prevail in this civil lawsuit," an e-mail sent to MTV News read.
More to come.
Four witnesses have come forward to support claims Diddy assaulted Gerard Rechnitzer, a partygoer at a post-Oscars party last year. Though, at the time Sean Combs wasn't charged with assault after an confrontation, currently Combs has a pending lawsuit on the matter. From New York Daily News... Court documents filed last week detail statements given by witnesses to the dustup. "I just kind of remember seeing [Rechnitzer] go flying, not flying as in like feet off the ground, but he went back significantly," Marianna Ruiz said in her deposition. "I was just in shock that somebody would ... just kind of strike somebody out of nowhere." Witness Michael Sherman said, "All of a sudden, [Diddy] hit him. And there was a taxi behind Gerard. Gerard got knocked into the taxi." Rechnitzer, 27, is seeking unspecified damages in the suit.
Sean "Diddy" Combs headed west to sin city after partying-it-up at his East Hampton home. TMZ.com reports, Combs partied at Caesars Palace's club PURE, reportedly doing "some impromptu MCing." Britney Spears was always spotted partying with Diddy, according to TMZ.
People Magazine reports Diddy gave Ms. Spears a warm welcome.. "Listen up, we have Miss Britney Spears in the crowd," Diddy announced from the main stage at about 2 a.m. Saturday.
In other Diddy News: The mogul has reportedly settled his lawsuit with the publisher Random House, the suit involved a breach of contract Random House contends. The publisher said “the matter has been amicably resolved,” but never indicated if Combs had to payback the $300,000 book advance.
An update on Diddy's post-Oscar allegations, when its alleged Sean Combs struck another individual at an area Hollywood hotel. A spokesman for the Los Angeles city Attorney's Office said yesterday, charges will not be filed in the case. Page Six reports.. The spokesman declined to say if the case fell apart because the victim declined to cooperate, explaining only, "There was insufficient evidence."
A Sean Combs' lawyer commented on the dropped charges.. "People who are superstars are always vulnerable to these allegations."
It's also alleged by Laurie Ann Gibson, Combs' and Michael Bivins assaulted her in May. Combs' lawyers refuted that charge by claiming, "This is just another example of a false accusation by someone trying to take advantage of Sean's success and celebrity status."
A interesting piece from the Slate.. On Bridgeport Music Inc. suing artist for sampling, which is a industry norm in hip-hop.. It turns out the same company, sued over the Notorious B.I.G. album Ready to Die for illegal sampling, the album later pulled from shelves. The company was later awarded over 4 million in damages..Last week, a mysterious company, Bridgeport Music Inc., sued hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, accusing him of breaking the law when he recorded his 2003 single "Justify My Thug." The song is an obvious nod to Madonna's "Justify My Love," but she is not the plaintiff. Instead, Bridgeport is suing because Jay-Z did something that is normal in hip-hop: sampling. He took a few notes, looped them in the background, and produced the tune. Bridgeport claims to own those notes, and is demanding a fortune in damages and a permanent ban on the distribution of the song. Bridgeport is an unwelcome addition to the music world: the "sample troll." Similar to its cousins the patent trolls, Bridgeport and companies like it hold portfolios of old rights (sometimes accumulated in dubious fashion) and use lawsuits to extort money from successful music artists for routine sampling, no matter how minimal or unnoticeable.
March of this year, Bridgeport cashed in. It convinced a court to enjoin the sales of the best-selling Notorious B.I.G. album Ready to Die for illegal sampling. A jury awarded Bridgeport more than $4 million in damages.
More legal trouble for Diddy & his Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment, this time a jury decided that the title track "Singing in the Morning," violated copyright infringement. The jury awarded Bridgeport Music and Westbound Records, $4.2 million in direct and punitive damages. In addition, the Judge ordered immediate stop of sales of Notorious B.I.G.'s and one of Rap all-time albums, Ready to Die.NY NewDay reports more:The sales ban imposed by U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell affects the album and the title song in any form, including Internet downloads and radio play. It was unclear when or how the ban would take effect.
The jury decided that Bad Boy Entertainment and executive producer Sean "Diddy" Combs illegally used a part of the Ohio Players' 1992 song "Singing In The Morning."
Bridgeport Music and Westbound Records, which owned the song rights, have filed hundreds of lawsuits over "sampling," the practice of lifting parts of old music for new recordings. Most were settled out of court.
The companies get most of their income from song royalties by their artists, which include funk legend George Clinton, the Funkadelics and the Ohio Players.
A Federal Court has ordered the city of Los Angeles to pay the Christopher Wallace family for withholding evidence in the Biggie Smalls civil suit... LA. Times continued...In a stinging rebuke, a federal judge Friday ordered the city of Los Angeles to pay $1.1 million in attorney fees and costs to the family of slain rap artist Notorious B.I.G. as sanctions for intentionally withholding evidence.
U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper declared a mistrial last summer in the family's civil lawsuit after finding that a Los Angeles Police Department detective hid statements linking the killing to rogue LAPD Officers David A. Mack and Rafael Perez, a central figure in the Rampart police scandal.
At the time, city attorneys protested that the statements had come from a jailhouse informant seeking special treatment, and robbery-homicide Det. Steven Katz insisted that he had overlooked the transcript of the remarks in his desk.
But Cooper ruled that Katz and perhaps others had deliberately concealed the information and said it could have bolstered the family's contention that Mack was involved in the killing.
The sanctions followed a series of legal volleys in which Cooper asked the plaintiffs' attorneys to submit fees and costs — and the city to contest those calculations.
Though Cooper didn't give the family the $2 million it originally sought, she left open the possibility of an additional award of $300,000. (More at L.A. Times)
B.I.G. Duets: The Final Chapter remains strong: Bad Boy Fans, and rap-hip hop fans have kept up strong sales of the Biggie Smalls, B.I.G. Duets, as it remains #1 on Billboard's top rap albums since its Dec. 19th release. While, The Final Chapter's "Nasty Girl" video remains one of MTV's most requested videos..Forever Live The Notorious B.I.G.
Another trial can be wrote in the history of Sean "Diddy" Combs, this one went better then the past few.. No money exchanged, no time, no mo' problems; the case Kirk Burrowes (former President of BBWEG) vs. Sean Combs (CEO BBWEG)... The State of New York appeals court has finally sided with the Bad Boy head, the Court tossed out a claim Mr. Burrowes was threatened (with a baseball bat) by his former Boss to sell his stake of Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group.. The alleged incident occured in 1996 can only lead one to believe, the former employee was trying to extort his former boss of thousands of dollars through a legal settlement...
It appears Sean Combs has settled a suit filed by a partygoer out of court. Gerard Rechnitzer alleges Combs assaulted him at a post-Oscar party, previously LA District Attorney declined to file charges against Combs.
