The frequently turbulent history of legendary hip hop record label Death Row Records is facing another interesting twist after a US judge last week threatened to force the company into receivership.
That threat came as LA Superior Court Judge Ronald Sohigian announced he was considering seizing control of Death Row boss Marion 'Suge' Knight's assets, after the hip-hop impresario refused to pay $107 million in damages relating to a civil court judgment laid down in March last year. Sohigian says he will place Death Row into receivership next month if Knight fails to attend a debtors' hearing. The Death Row man has missed three previous hearings.
As with everything to do with Death Row, nothing is straightforward. As previously reported, the $107 million damages are due to Lydia Harris, who sued Knight alleging that she co-founded the hip hop label but was defrauded out of her share by her former business partner. Harris won her lawsuit against Knight last year when the hip hop mogul and his legal people failed to respond to several questions posed by the courts in relation to the case.
The Death Row man has so far failed to pay those damages, his lawyers recently claiming that they had in fact already reached an out of court settlement with Harris that rendered the damages payment unnecessary. Commenting on the latest case developments, Knight's attorney Dermot Givens again told reporters: "In May of 2005, [Harris] received a million dollars and rights to various music, and she signed a settlement agreement".
The whole case became even more complicated last summer when Harris' estranged husband claimed he should get half of the damages his wife had won, and began divorce proceedings in a bid to force that claim. Because Knight had yet to make any damages payment he too became involved in the divorce proceedings, with his assets being frozen last August.
Knight has not helped his case by frequently missing court hearings relating to this case, hence Judge Sohigian's threat to liquidate the hip hop man's company and assets in order to bring closure to the affair. Whether Knight will now cooperate in order to avoid that eventuality remains to be seen.
Harris' lawyer Rex Julian Beaber doesn't hold out much hope: "Because he had a long history of deceiving the court and avoiding payment, I asked the court to appoint a receiver to take over. If Knight cooperates in providing the information, he can ask the court to remove the receiver. But I don't think there's a chance in hell Knight is going to cooperate."