Kanye West has filed a $10 million lawsuit against a London-based insurance company for failing to pay out after his Saint Pablo tour was canceled last year.
As you know by now, Kanye was hospitalized last year after suffering a mental breakdown and the tour was canceled indefinitely.
The Hollywood Reporter has obtained details of the lawsuit.
West is suing various syndicates of insurer Lloyd’s of London, alleging they are stalling on paying out claims emanating from a canceled tour. A loss claim was tendered just two days after West checked himself into a psychiatric center, but he and his company — Very Good Touring, Inc. — still have not been paid more than eight months later, according to the suit.
“Nor have they provided anything approaching a coherent explanation about why they have not paid, or any indication if they will ever pay or even make a coverage decision, implying that Kanye’s use of marijuana may provide them with a basis to deny the claim and retain the hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance premiums paid by Very Good,” states a complaint filed on Tuesday in California federal court. “The stalling is emblematic of a broader modus operandi of the insurers of never-ending post-claim underwriting where the insurers hunt for some contrived excuse not to pay.”
West’s lawsuit addresses this latter concert and notes the “strained, confused and erratic” behavior in Sacramento, as well as the decision made the following day to cancel the balance of the tour and issue full refunds. He was soon hospitalized at UCLA, and the insurance companies were informed and later provided with sworn testimony from his primary physician there that West suffered a debilitating medical condition that required he not tour.
But that wasn’t good enough for the insurance companies, according to the suit.
“Almost immediately after the claim was submitted, Defendants selected legal counsel to oversee the adjustment of the claim, instead of the more normal approach of retaining a non-lawyer insurance adjuster,” states West’s complaint. “Immediately turning to legal counsel made it clear that Defendants’ goal was to hunt for any ostensible excuse, no matter how fanciful, to deny coverage or to maneuver themselves into a position of trying to negotiate a discount on the loss payment.”
Kanye’s lawsuit also accuses the insurance company of leaking his private medical information to local news outlets.
“While Kanye was still under medical care for his disabling condition, the Defendant syndicates demanded that Kanye submit to an immediate IME,” states court papers, referring to an independent medical examination. “Kanye was made available for a purported IME by a doctor, hand-selected by the insurers’ counsel, who was predisposed to look for some reason to deny the claim. Yet even Defendants’ selected doctor had to admit that Kanye was disabled from being able to continue with the Tour. As demanded by the insurers, Kanye was also subsequently presented for an examination under oath (“EUO”), and at least eleven other persons affiliated with Kanye and Very Good were similarly presented for EUOs.”
West still can’t get answers about why the insurance companies won’t pay up, but according to court papers, the insurers demanded to interview others outside of West’s control to make a determination. The defendants are also said to be raising “irrelevant facts” bearing on the issue of coverage. While those facts aren’t discussed in the lawsuit, some aggressive tabloids have been pushing for information about the canceled tour and its aftermath, raising everything from drug use to song lyrics as fodder.
“Plaintiff is informed and believes that the ‘planting’ of the Confidential Information with news outlets… was part and parcel of Defendants’ efforts to impair Plaintiff’s rights to the indemnity payments due under the Insurance Policies,” states the complaint, which nods to a non-disclosure agreement between the parties.
You can check out more details of the lawsuit via THR.
