Ja Rule Dismissed From $100M Fyre Festival Class Action Lawsuit
11/19/2019 by Taylor Mims
The failed event's chief marketing officer Grant Margolin was also dropped as a defendant.
Rapper Ja Rule has officially been dismissed as a defendant in the $100 million class action lawsuit over 2017's failed Fyre Festival.
According to an order filed Nov. 7 and obtained by Billboard, Jeffrey Atkins (a.k.a. Ja Rule) and Fyre Fest’s chief marketing officer Grant Margolin have been dropped from the case that is still ongoing.
"In July, the Court dismissed all Fyre Festival claims against Mr. Atkins. After this loss, plaintiffs’ law firm Geragos & Geragos appealed that decision, and the Court denied their appeal. This ruling is nothing short of a total vindication of Mr. Atkins,” said Ja Rule’s attorney Ryan Hayden Smith in a statement provided to Billboard.
Margolin represented himself in the case with help from the Golenbock Eismen law firm.
The two defendants were originally dismissed in a July 10 decision by Judge P. Kevin Castel, but law firm Geragos & Geragos that represents the plaintiffs filed an appeal to keep Ja Rule and Margolin involved in the case.
Geragos & Geragos appealed the judge’s July decision by arguing that a tweet from Ja Rule and new evidence surfaced from the competing Hulu and Netflix Fyre festival documentaries suggested that Ja Rule and Margolin knowingly encouraged people to attend the flailing event despite knowing it would not come to fruition.
The judge denied the plaintiffs’ appeal in regards to Ja Rule when they could not prove that they were swayed into buying tickets for Fyre Fest as a result of Ja Rule’s tweet promoting the event on April 27, 2017. According to Ja Rule’s attorney, the rapper has now been fully exonerated and excused from the lawsuit.
The judge also ruled that any information obtained from the Fyre Fraud and Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened documentaries could not be used as “new evidence” since they had been public knowledge for six months prior to his dismissal.
The class action lawsuit against Fyre Festival and founder Billy McFarland is still ongoing.