MJ's son Blanket

Michael Jackson's family is involved in a complex legal battle ... and they're not all on the same side in this one -- 'cause MJ's son Blanket is trying to stop his own grandmother from using estate money in her ongoing fight.


Here's the deal ... Blanket -- MJ's youngest son, whose real name is Bigi Jackson -- filed documents this week, obtained by TMZ,  asking the court not to allow his grandmother Katherine to use Michael's estate money to fund an appeal of a previous ruling.


Basically, Blanket and his grandmother were recently working together to stop the executors of Jackson's estate from going through with a huge business transaction that they were very much so against.


The docs don't say exactly what the transaction was -- it's been shrouded in mystery throughout this saga -- but, based on recent reporting, it seems like it may be related to the deal the estate made with Sony to sell about half of Michael's music catalog for $600M.


Blanket explains he and his grandmother presented their arguments opposing the deal ... but ultimately the court ruled against them -- seemingly bringing the legal issue to a close.


However, Katherine's decided to appeal the ruling ... a move Blanket says he doesn’t want any part of -- and, more importantly ... he doesn't want his father's estate paying for her legal bills. As you know, he's an heir to the estate ... so that cash is pretty important to him.


The way Blanket explains it in the docs ... the appeal has little chance of winning, and he says he doesn't think it truly benefits the beneficiaries of the trust to continue the fight -- so, he simply doesn't want the estate to foot the bill for it ... something Katherine wants.

Blanket's also asked the court to use its best judgment to grant Katherine reasonable attorney's fees incurred from the pre-appeal battle -- which he agrees she's entitled to ... at least to a certain extent.

It's unsurprising Blanket's filing against Katherine ... just yesterday, executors of Michael's estate reportedly claimed that she receives a seven-figure allowance for the year -- money Blanket presumably would rather she use for the appeal instead of the estate's dough.

Seems like the family's not totally seeing eye to eye on this one ... a judge has yet to rule.


https://www.tmz.com/2024/03/20/michael-jackson-son-blanket-bigi-no-pay-grandmother-attorney-fees-katherine-jackson/?adid=social-tw

Katherine Jackson Responds to Grandson Bigi's Objection to the Jackson Estate Paying Her Legal Fees amid Ongoing Battle
The youngest Jackson child previously said in court documents that the mother of the late superstar's objections to a catalog deal are a "waste" of time


Katherine Jackson is firing back at her grandson Bigi Jackson amid an ongoing legal battle over Michael Jackson's estate.

Days after Bigi (formerly known as Blanket) objected in a court filing to his grandmother using funds from the King of Pop's estate to pay her legal fees in an ongoing dispute with the executors over the singer's catalog sale to Sony, Katherine has filed a response.

In the March 20th filing, which was obtained by PEOPLE, the mother of the late pop icon alleges that the executors are being too frugal with how the estate's money is being awarded to its beneficiaries and argues that they can afford to cover the costs she's requesting.

The filing states, "... it seems clear to [Katherine] that the Executors are holding all of the assets in the Estate in order to keep control over them, and to avoid the more liberal distribution requirements of the Trust."

Katherine argues that "the Executors cannot in good faith contend that the Estate does not have sufficient available funds to allow the Trust to make the requested payment," per the filing, considering it is currently valued at $1.5 billion.

According to the documents, attorneys on behalf of late singer's mother claim that there would be no "loss to creditors or injury to the estate or any interested person" to cover her legal fees. "This vastly exceeds its potential liabilities, and leaves hundreds of millions of dollars available for the remainder beneficiaries," the papers state.

The filing also argues against a point that the executors' attorneys made at a March 8 hearing, noting that 20 percent of the estate is to be donated to charities. "...Nothing in the Trust requires those payments to be made before any preliminary distribution to other beneficiaries," the papers read.

(Katherine herself is not a beneficiary of the estate like the singer's children, but is instead a sole beneficiary of a sub trust in Michael's will.)

Katherine and her attorneys also argue in the filing that the court is within its jurisdiction to instruct executors to pay her legal fees and that she properly satisfies all of the requirements for it to do so.

In court last Friday, her attorney Adam Pines once again requesting that the estate pay the half a million dollars in attorney fees Katherine has accumulated while appealing last year's decision.

Her petition follows Bigi's objection made on March 18. In the filing obtained by PEOPLE, he claimed that the Jackson estate wouldn't "benefit" from paying for Katherine's pending appeal against co-executors John Branca and John McClain, who had wanted approval to move forward with an unnamed "recent transaction."

While the deal was not disclosed in the filing, it seems to be the estate’s estimated $600 million catalog sale to Sony.


It seems as though Bigi and Katherine were initially aligned in the case involving the estate’s proposed transaction, but the two parties began to disagree with one another as a judge ruled last year that the sale would move ahead. Bigi and his siblings, Prince and Paris, approved the decision, while Katherine filed an appeal, which is currently pending.

"It is readily apparent that a reversal on appeal would be an extreme longshot,” lawyers wrote in the objection on behalf of Bigi. “Given those odds, Bigi decided not to waste his resources to participate in an appeal. Nonetheless, Katherine has decided to appeal this court’s ruling. That decision is not for the benefit of the heirs.”


The documents also state that Bigi isn't entirely against the estate paying for Katherine's attorneys, as he supported payment of "reasonable attorney fees and costs" for her initial objection to the deal as she presented "essential evidence."


https://people.com/katherine-responds-bigi-objection-michael-jackson-estate-paying-legal-fees-8620669?taid=66033ed894906a000184143b&utm_campaign=peoplemagazine&utm_content=new&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com