Eminem stays shady as €1.5m legal row is settled (The Idependent)

Eminem stays shady as €1.5m legal row is settled
Rap superstar Eminem who had been due to appear at Slane Castle
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Go By Ann O’Loughlin
Tuesday June 26 2007
US RAP superstar Eminem will not have to reveal why he withdrew from an Irish gig, after a legal row over €1.5m in compensation for the cancellation was settled.
The High Court had ordered he give evidence on oath before a US court about the circumstances of his withdrawal from the Slane Castle gig, planned for September 17, 2005.
The settlement of the action brought by concert promoter MCD was announced to Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan at the Commercial Court yesterday. The judge made orders striking out the case and all court orders made within it. No details of the settlement were disclosed.
Last March, Justice Peter Kelly directed that a letter be issued to the US District Court of the Eastern District of Michigan requesting them to direct Eminem, real name Marshall Mathers III, to give evidence on oath about the circumstances of the pull-out of the Slane gig. He made the order after saying it appeared Eminem was not prepared to come to Ireland or to give evidence by video link.
Refusing an additional application to direct that Eminem’s testimony about his state of health would be in private, the judge said Eminem’s testimony would be read into the record when it was opened in the proceedings. It was clear Eminem’s testimony was possibly crucial to the litigation, he added.
In the proceedings by MCD against three UK insurance companies, the Irish promoter was seeking €1.5m over the companies’ failure to pay it over the cancellation of Eminem’s planned gig, scheduled for September 17, 2005, as part of Eminem’s ‘Anger Management’ European tour.
MCD said €1.5m was the maximum amount it could pursue the insurance companies for under the terms of an insurance contract of June 29, 2005. Alternatively, it sought damages for alleged breach of contract.
The action was against three London-based insurance companies – Liberty Syndicate Management Ltd, trading as Liberty Syndicates LIB44722 at Lloyds, Brit Insurance Ltd and Markel International Ltd.
MCD had claimed it had entered into an insurance contract with the defendant companies on June 29, 2005, under which the companies agreed to indemnify it up to a stated limit should the Eminem gig be necessarily cancelled or relocated.
On August 18, 2005, the gig was cancelled “due to the illness of Eminem, namely exhaustion, which entirely prevented Eminem from appearing,” MCD said.
It appeared Eminem was not prepared to come to Ireland
In an affidavit, Mr Denis Desmond of MCD said Eminmen’s ‘Anger Management’ tour was due to begin in Germany on September 1, 2005, but his manager, Paul Rosenberg, announced in August 2005 that Eminem was cancelling the tour.
Mr Desmond said subsequent media reports suggested that Eminem was shortly thereafter in hospital under doctors’ care being treated for dependency on sleep medication, according to his record company, Interscope Records.
MCD contended that the cancellation was due to the illness of Eminem “which entirely prevented him from appearing” and, accordingly, the defendant companies were required to indemnify MCD.
Because of the cancellation, MCD claimed it incurred losses of some €2,114,313, including €260,000 for a ten per cent share of gross profits and €915,000 in other profits.
– Ann O’Loughlin