News on Elton John, Korn, moe./Les
Elton John lost his case today (June 24) at London's Court of Appeal, which he had hoped would revive his multimillion-dollar negligence claim against his former accountants. John claimed that his manager, rather than himself, should pay the costs for tours -- which amounted to $10.5 million. He sought to revive a suit against PricewaterhouseCoopers for allegedly failing to advise him that he was paying touring costs.
Lord Justice Robert Walker, who joined one of the two other justices in ruling against the singer, said the case illustrated "a melancholy truth." "The fact that very large sums of money are to change hands under a commercial agreement, and further fact that it has been negotiated and prepared over a long period by well-remunerated professionals, provide no guarantee of competent drafting," Walker said.
He said the court had to make sense of the agreement as best it could and concluded that the 1986 contract with the management company John Reid Enterprises did not obligate it to bear the tour expenses. At a hearing last year, the High Court dismissed John's claim of negligence against Andrew Haydon, former managing director of John Reid Enterprises. John did not appeal that verdict, and he had previously reached a settlement of his action against Reid.
The performer admitted he enjoyed a "somewhat lavish lifestyle" and had spent $42 million on personal expenses -- including $410,000 on flowers -- over a 20-month period. A High Court judge described John as "clearly a man of an uncommonly generous disposition" and a man of great intelligence, but who had "little or no interest in business matters."