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Good News, Larry!
November 12, 2004
Rod Stewart Must Repay $780G in Tour Fight
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:09 p.m. ET
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Singer Rod Stewart must repay the $780,000 he accepted as a deposit for a Latin American concert tour that was canceled, a jury ruled Friday.
The jury also assessed damages of $1.6 million against Stewart's lawyers and agents at the ICM talent agency for their roles in negotiating a contract for the tour.
``The message that is sent I hope is that big players in the media cannot treat little players with arrogance and greed and get away with it,'' said Dennis Holahan, a lawyer who represented music tour operators from Peru, Argentina and Oklahoma.
The contract called for Stewart, 59, to be paid $2.1 million in advance for nine concerts in Central and South America that would start in February 2002. The document was not signed by promoter Howard Pollack, although he e-mailed he would do so.
About $780,000 of the advance was paid before Stewart's associates canceled the tour in mid-January 2002; the money was not returned. Pollack and two other promoters sued.
``These men and their companies were ruined by this,'' Holahan said. ``This is going to restore their credibility and personal reputations.''
Skip Miller, the lawyer who represented Stewart and his co-defendants, argued the singer was entitled to keep the advance fee and be compensated for money he lost by not touring. Outside court, he predicted the verdicts would be overturned.
``It's ridiculous to find liability against a lawyer and an agent for doing their jobs,'' Miller said. ``It's crazy. I will get this overturned if it's the last thing I do.''
He said that under California law, a business adviser has a privilege against liability.
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