Michael Jackson’s son Bigi challenges grandmother’s use of estate money in court

Michael Jackson’s son, Bigi, has taken his grandmother to court in an attempt to prevent her from using funds from his father’s estate as part of a legal battle.

Bigi – whose legal name is Prince Michael Jackson III, and is also known as Blanket – has requested that Katherine Jackson be prevented from using the funds to finance her legal battle against executors.

Attorneys have said that Katherine’s legal services requests do not benefit the estate, so a judge should not approve them (per USA Today).

It comes after reports emerged last week that the late pop legend’s son was filing a legal injunction against his grandmother.

The filing was thought to be in response to Katherine’s opposition of the recent landmark deal the estate made with Sony to sell half of Michael’s music catalogue for $600million (£475million).

The deal is expected to be the biggest-ever valuation of an artist’s music assets, with sources valuing it at between $1.2billion and $1.5billion in total (£950million – £1.19billion).

Bigi previously claimed that he and Katherine presented their arguments against the deal, but ultimately the court ruled against them – which seemingly brought the legal issue to a close.

However, a filing states that “despite the expense and long odds, Katherine decided to pursue an appeal.”

The court filing said the Sony deal was “of paramount significance to Bigi, both financially and personally”, who has decided to move on from the court dispute.

Katherine had previously told the court that Michael never wanted his music catalogue to be sold.

Last week, Billboard reported that Katherine Jackson has received more than $55million (£43.5million) since the singer’s death in June 2009, according to claims from Michael Jackson’s estate detailed in legal filings.

The new filings were reportedly intended to prove that the estate shouldn’t have to pay for Katherine’s legal bills.

Executors John Branca and John McClain argued that “virtually no request of Mrs. Jackson for her care or maintenance has been declined”.

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