Kanye West Found Liable in Trial, but Jury Awards Only Modest Damages

Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, lost a case brought by a project manager for his former Malibu mansion in a verdict announced Wednesday. But things did not go entirely the plaintiff’s way in the mixed judgment, as Tony Saxon, who brought the suit, was awarded only $140,000, plus lawyers’ fees and court costs, with no additional punitive damages.

Saxon’s attorney had asked the jury gathered in Los Angeles Superior Court to award his client $1.7 million in compensatory damages. The amount Ye will owe will add up considerably beyond the $140,000 cited once attorneys’ fees are tacked on; the extra amount he will owe was not immediately disclosed.

The jury ruled against Ye in determining that Saxon was in fact an employee and was injured on the job, as he claimed, but turned down the claim that he was wrongfully terminated.

Both parties’ teams issued statements acknowledging that there was good news and bad news in the verdict for either side. Ye’s reps indicated they would be appealing the amount they were ordered to pay, and were looking forward to prevailing against Saxon with their own countersuit.

“Today’s mixed verdict is a vindication for our client, Tony Saxon,” said Ronald Zambrano, employment chair of West Coast Trial Lawyers. “Ye’s lawyers called him a liar, a fraud and a malingerer in court. His medical records, bank records and personal family history were dissected, mocked, and vilified. Yeezy representative Milo Yiannopoulos maligned him and our firm in the press. Ye’s team demanded that Tony pay them to resolve the case and issue a public apology. Most people would have folded. In true David-vs.-Goliath fashion, Mr. Saxon stood firm against one of the biggest celebrities in the world, with the truth on his side.”

Added Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, “Though the jury’s award was less than we asked for, the California Labor Code allows us to recover our attorney’s fees and costs. When it’s all said and done, the judgment against Ye should be more than $1 million. We will not be bullied by Ye, his team or anyone else. We thank the jury for their time and their verdict, and we look forward to continuing to represent employees who have been treated unfairly and who refuse to be intimidated or silenced.”

Meanwhile, a statement from Ye’s team, via Milo Yiannopoulos began: “Plaintiff’s counsel asked the jury to award Tony Saxon approximately $1.7 million. The jury rejected almost all of his claims. Although the jury found that Saxon qualified as an employee for certain purposes, they awarded no damages for lost wages, overtime, waiting-time penalties, retaliation, punitive damages, or any other statutory penalties. The only damages awarded were $140,000 related to Saxon’s claim that he was injured while working on the property.”

The statement continued, “The jury also found that Saxon acted in the capacity of a contractor and did not qualify for the employee exception under California’s contractor licensing statutes. Under California law, an unlicensed contractor cannot recover compensation for work requiring a license. Based on those findings, we believe the damages award is legally barred and will be seeking post-trial relief from the court.”

Then the Ye camp dropped the hammer on what they hope to achieve in going after Saxon in a separate lawsuit: “This concludes the first of two lawsuits. We now proceed to the larger and more consequential case: Our action against Saxon and his attorneys, Ron Zambrano and West Coast Trial Lawyers, arising from their recording and publicizing of an unlawful mechanic’s lien on Ye’s Malibu property. That lien clouded the home’s title and interfered with its sale, destroying substantial value at the time of sale.
.. The first lawsuit ended with Saxon recovering only a small fraction of what his lawyers demanded. The second lawsuit will address the far more serious misconduct surrounding the lien and the damages it caused.”

The trial, which began Feb. 23, reached a climax at the end of last week when both Ye and his wife, Bianca Censori, took the stand, although defense attorneys did not elicit much information from either of them. Ye, in particular, answered “I don’t recall” to most questions and appeared to observers to be sleepy and possibly even dozing off on the stand.

In Monday’s closing arguments, Ye’s attorney, Andrew Cherlaskey, refuted reportage that his client had fallen asleep during his testimony. “He answered the questions,” Cherlaskey told the jury, according to Rolling Stone. “He wasn’t sleeping. He was bored. This is beneath him.”

Saxon had claimed in the lawsuit that Ye promised him $20,000 per week for the job, but ultimately only gave him one of those payments, plus $100,000 for construction costs.

Saxon claimed he was severely injured on the job in his back and neck, which Ye’s attorneys attempted to refute by showing video of Saxon singing with a band at a club and rolling on the floor in what they characterized as a vigorous performance.

The most bizarre parts of the testimony involved Saxon reiterating that Ye had wanted to essentially gut the beach house, an architectural landmark designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, and eliminate stairs as well as outside electricity and plumbing in an attempt to take it off the grid. The closest Ye’s camp came to acknowledging that part of Saxon’s account came when Censori said in testimony that her husband had wanted to remove just one stairwell and put a slide in its place.

Saxon also testified that he had been forced to become a round-the-clock security guard as well as project manager as the mansion was taken apart, with Ye allegedly telling him, “Stay here now. You can’t leave.” Saxon recalled how much contact he had with Ye, including having the hip-hop mogul pick him up when his car ran out of gas. Ye claimed on the stand that he did not remember any of these encounters or conversations, though he did finally assent when the attorney asked him if it was true that he complained about Saxon’s smell.

Ye has recently been considered to be “canceled” in many show-biz and business circles for his antisemitic comments, for which he recently took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal to apologize. Some entertainment companies appear ready to forgive or at least forget the antisemitism, as SoFi Stadium announced this week that Ye will be headlining an appearance there on April 3. Ye also has his oft-delayed “Bully” album set for release later this month through an independent label.