Faith Evans has lost a multimillion-dollar legal battle with the estate of Notorious BIG’s late mother over the distribution of funds tied to the late rap star’s trust.
According to AllHipHop, a Delaware judge awarded a $12.5 million judgment to Voletta Wallace Revocable Trust – Biggie’s mother, Voletta Wallace’s estate – including interest, for payments made to Notorious BIG, LLC, the trust overseeing Biggie’s intellectual property.
On Tuesday, October 27, Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery denied Evans’ legal team’s request to limit the judgment to $48,612 and ruled that she must pay the full $12,518,336 awarded to Wallace’s trust, headed by Wayne Barrow, the former director of the Notorious OIG.
Biggie and Evan’s son, Christopher Jordan Wallace, better known as CJ, challenged Barrow’s control of Wallace’s estate, which Wallace granted Barrow as executor of his estate before his death in February 2025. CJ accuses Barrow of manipulating his grandmother Voletta Wallace into granting him execution of the Voletta Wallace Revocable Trust.
CJ and Evans proposed that the state take control of the disputed funds amid questions surrounding the administration of the estate. McCormick rejected this approach, finding that the pending Pennsylvania proceedings would not undo Barrow’s good faith actions or alter the trust’s right to distributions.
In her ruling, she wrote: “The economic rights associated with Ms. Wallace’s shares now vest in the trust. Plaintiff Wayne Barrow, who appears in this action on behalf of the trust, also holds letters testamentary issued on April 21, 2025, making him the sole executor of the estate. Pennsylvania law provides that “(n)no act of administration done in good faith by a personal representative shall be impeached by the subsequent revocation of his letters or by the subsequent homologation of a will, a later will or a codicil.’”
She added: “The outcome of the action in Pennsylvania will therefore not affect any action taken by Mr. Barrow with respect to the Trust, Ms. Wallace’s estate and the Trust’s right to distributions from the date of Ms. Wallace’s death. I therefore do not find it necessary for the accrued distributions to be deposited in the Chancery Register. They are due to the Trust.”
The judge also ruled that the trust became a member of Notorious BIG, LLC on December 12, 2025, when Barrow signed a written consent establishing his membership rights. The ruling entitled the trust to distributions dating back to Wallace’s death, rather than limiting its recovery to the smallest amount Evans and company claimed were payable.
McCormick further ordered prejudgment interest on these distributions, calculated from the dates the payments were made and compounded quarterly at the statutory rate. Barrow, who represented the trust in the Delaware proceeding, received letters testamentary after being named executor in April 2025.
The legal battle between Barrow and Evans stems from the R&B star’s refusal to distribute profits earned from Notorious BIG LLC, including its partnership with Primary Wave, announced in March 2025, which includes Biggie’s name, image and likeness.
McCormick gave Barrow 20 days to submit a final form of order reflecting the court’s judgment and previous decisions. Although the Delaware decision establishes the trust’s rights to distributions, the separate challenge to Barrow’s appointment in Pennsylvania remains a separate and pending legal issue.
This story was originally published on VIBE.
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