American rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye, was stuck in a legal soup after a former employee sued him for monetary compensation. Tony Saxton, an alleged project manager of Ye’s Malibu Mansion, had sued the rapper for $1.7 million, in lieu of lost pay and medical expenses.
According to Saxton, the contractor Ye had hired to renovate his mansion in Malibu claimed that the terms violated several labour codes, prompting the lawsuit in 2023. In those demands, Saxton accused Ye of not paying wages and subjecting him to harsh medical conditions.
Kanye West loses $1.7 mn lawsuit – how much will he pay?
According to Entertainment Weekly, the jury rejected almost all of Saxton’s claims. “They awarded no damages for lost wages, overtime, waiting-time penalties, retaliation, punitive damages, or any other statutory penalties,” reported a representative from Ye’s legal team.
However, the owner of the $57 million Malibu estate will pay $140,000, as per the project manager’s claims of injury, while on the job. However, Ye will also have to pay for his legal fees, inflating the total compensation to more than $1 million, as per an Entertainment Weekly report.
The suit further listed that Saxon was fired 7 weeks after he was hired to renovate the beachfront mansion. During his time at the job, he would sleep on the floor in a sleeping bag, while also acting as a security guard for the property. In November 2023, he was seriously injured, but Ye denied these claims. His legal team iterated that Saxon ‘has sustained any injury, damage, or loss by reason of any act, omission or breach by Defendant.’
Ye and Bianca take the stand on Saxon
A TMZ report further revealed that Saxon was paid only once during his time. Taking the stand during the hearing earlier this week, Ye and his wife, Bianca Censori, took the stand. As per Rolling Stone, their answers were brief, while Ye claimed that he barely remembers hiring Saxon. Additionally, he even ‘repeatedly yawned’, ‘closed eyes for long stretches, and at times seemed to catch his head falling forward’. Censori, on the other hand, reportedly took the stand, saying she worked with Tony but only for a short time, while on the project.