Two men who have long accused Michael Jackson of sexually assaulting them as children are seeking a whopping $400 million in their court cases, his estate revealed in recent court filings.
Wade Robson and James Safechuck have spent more than a decade litigating over their allegations of sexual abuse – and in a motion filed last week in Los Angeles court, Jackson estate executors John Branca and John McClain say they’re seeking a monumental sum.
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“It would be disastrous for the Estate to default in this case,” Branca and McClain wrote in the court filings, which were obtained by Billboard.
The revelation came amid an intra-estate dispute with Jackson’s daughter Paris Jackson, who claims Branca and McClain have paid too much in legal bills to certain law firms. In the new filing, the executors argue that not paying those fees would have “profoundly destabilizing consequences,” including a costly judgment for Robson and Safechuck.
“The Estate would likely have to default in the Robson/Safechuck litigation, where numerous depositions, discovery matters, and other matters are scheduled to take place over the next several months, and where the plaintiffs are seeking $400 million.”
In a statement to Billboard, the Jackson estate said: “The lawsuit has no merit and Michael is innocent.” An attorney for Robson and Safechuck did not immediately return a request for comment on the estate’s claims about the damages demand.
Though Robson and Safechuck have being suing for years, it had never been reported that they were seeking such a massive award. The revelation was first reported by Us Weekly.
Jackson, who died suddenly in 2009, was never convicted or held legally liable on any accusation of child molestation, but is still dogged by such allegations. Last year, the estate took legal action against a man named Frank Cascio, claiming he fabricated such claims as part of an alleged $213 million extortion attempt.
Robson and Safechuck have spent years suing, and their allegations were amplified in 2019 by HBO docuseries Leaving Neverland, which laid out their claims in disturbing detail. In 2023, an appeals court revived their abuse lawsuits against Jackson’s companies, and the cases remain pending with a trial currently scheduled for next year.
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Paris Jackson filed her petition in June, challenging how the estate had paid its lawyers. She claimed the executors had failed to “provide adequate responses” over how it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to three firms. The executors later denied any wrongdoing, saying its conduct was “not unusual and in fact is quite common” in the music industry.
In last week’s new filing, they used the threat of a potential loss in the Robson and Safechuck cases to hammer that point home: “Petitioner’s requested relief, if granted, could devastate the Estate. The Estate’s attorneys — and those of its constituent businesses — are not going to work for free.”
