The cost of living crisis is now affecting lawsuits, it seems.
Chance the Rapper is walking away from his five year long headache of a lawsuit with an extra $35 in his pocket – and no, we didn’t miss a few zeroes.
Hardly enough to score him a parmi and a schooner – times are rough.
It all started back in November 2020 when the rapper’s ex-manager Pat Corcoran claimed Chance had breached the contract and owed him “$3.8 million of unreimbursed expenses supporting and promoting Bennett’s career”.
About two months later, Chance filed a lawsuit right back at him, seeking about a million dollars for what he claimed was breach of contract on Corcoran’s behalf.
It was pretty messy.
Corcoran was saying he should get 15% of Chance’s net profits, but Chance was saying there was never a written agreement in place, so then Corcoran said fine, we’ll do a sunset clause, which grants a manager payment of three years after a split.
Back and forth, back and forth.
The jury ended up siding with Chance and found that Corcoran had interfered with the artist’s business relationships and breached his contractual obligations.
And that’s where they got generous and awarded Chance that lovely $35 compensation in damages.
They also gave him back his website ChanceRaps, which Pat had been holding on pretty tightly to.
Pat’s lawyer Jay Scharkey said to the Chicago Sun Times, “we respect the jury’s decision, but the message to music managers is clear: Get it in writing. The jury award of $35 speaks to how seriously the jury viewed Chance’s case.”
You’d think Chance might’ve learnt his lesson from making a good mate his manager with nothing but a verbal contract in place, but he ended up replacing Pat with his brother Taylor Bennett and his Dad Ken Bennett.
Let’s hope they’ve at least got something formal going.
