Paris Jackson is reigniting her feud with her father’s executor, accusing John Branca of “persistent incompetence” and asking a judge to reject her request for nearly $110 million in fees for work on the late pop star’s estate from 2023 to 2024.
In a new motion filed Friday and obtained by rolling stoneMichael Jackson’s only daughter claims Branca missed his September 15 deadline to submit full financial accounts for 2023 and 2024, instead filing documents that were either incomplete or “nothing more than a placeholder.” Despite the alleged failings, she said, Branca sought $109,219,648 in combined compensation for himself, his lawyers and his late co-executor, John McClain, who died in May at age 71.
“It is not clear how an executor could confidently calculate and distribute such an amount and yet be unable to file complete and accurate accounts years later,” his new 12-page motion states. “Paris respectfully submits that the discrepancy between the executor’s level of compensation and his continued incompetence is intolerable.”
Calling the fee request “particularly offensive” in light of the allegedly “delinquent” financial accounts, Paris is asking the retired judge overseeing the longtime estate to reduce Branca’s compensation from 15 percent to 10 percent of the estate’s gross entertainment-related income. She wants the reduction to be applied retroactively to 2003 and maintained until Branca submits full and accurate accounts up to 2006.
“It is an understatement to say that this motion is completely without merit,” a spokesperson representing the Branca-led estate said in a statement shared with rolling stone. “The (Paris) lawyers requested a reduction in executor compensation, when in fact the executors waived it from the outset of the estate and never agreed to any executor compensation. They receive a separate, court-ordered management fee for operating Michael Jackson’s successful business.”
Michael Jackson was 50 when he died on June 25, 2009, from an accidental overdose of propofol, a surgical anesthetic, at his rented Los Angeles mansion. Branca quickly stepped in to manage his affairs, and his lawyers have long credited him with transforming Jackson’s estate from a company saddled with more than $500 million in debt into a business valued at about $2 billion.
Paris’ new request comes nearly six months after she won a separate legal battle to force three lawyers who worked for her father’s estate to return $625,000 in bonuses authorized by Branca. In an April 29 decision, retired Judge Mitchell Beckloff found that the estate failed to demonstrate that the payments were “fair and reasonable based on the information provided.”
“In fact, based on the evidence presented, the amounts of bonuses paid appear arbitrary – which Mr. Branca found appropriate,” Beckloff wrote. “While Mr. Branca may, in fact, know the amount of legal fees better than anyone else, there must be a specific and detailed factual basis for an order to find that the fees are just and reasonable.”
Paris, 28, is the beneficiary of her father’s estate with her brothers, Prince, 29, and Bigi, 24. In other recent court documents obtained by rolling stoneher lawyers said she did not take on her fight against Branca lightly.
“This litigation is painful for Paris. It is a distraction from his own life and his own career,” they wrote.
Gn entert
