Tupac Shakoor will always live on as one of the most iconic musicians in American history. Most recently, Tupac’s hand-written lyrics appear to be going up for auction, though Tupac’s estate is claiming foul. Specifically, Shakoor’s estate suggest that “Pac’s estate claims managers and employees had a fire sale after the rapper’s death — selling off tons of his personal property — but says it is the rightful owner of all his lyrics and written creations, because he never sold any of them.” As such, Shakoor’s lawyer will need to get a preliminary injunction.
The first step for Shakoor’s legal team will be to get a Judge to provide preliminary injunctive relief, as the sale is looming. In order for his estate’s lawyer’s to achieve such a feat, they must “show that they will suffer irreparable harm unless the injunction is issued.” In fact, preliminary injunctions “may only be issued after a hearing.” When determining whether to issue a preliminary injunction, Superior Court Judges consider “the extent of the irreparable harm, each party’s likelihood of prevailing at trial, and any other public or private interests implicated by the injunction.” Lastly, parties may appeal decisions on awards of preliminary injunction.
Like most subjects involving law, the path to success is not always as simple as it may appear. In the case of Shakoor and the estate’s legal team, possession of title may be changing hands rather quickly, or very likely, for large amounts of money. Below are some recent examples of other prolific artist dealing with these issues.
Elvis Presley
Sadly, this is not remotely the first time a celebrity’s estate has sought injunctive relief from an auction of their alleged property. In 1980, the estate of the late, great Elvis Presley ran into a similar problem. After filing for a preliminary injunction, they were able to stay the sale until the conclusion of trial. It is very important to note that a preliminary injunction issued revolved around Presley’s irreparable harm.
Prince
Even more recently, we have seen the battles of Prince’s estate. The fact of the matter is that when the super famous and wealthy celebrities pass, there is often times a fortune is left up for grabs. In the case of Prince, he died intestate (without a formal will) which further complicated the entire process. I will let the Wills and Trust experts explain this!
-Kevin Lipton, ESQ
Managing Partner – Lipton Legal Group, A PC – Beverly Hills, CA
Read more about this case at: http://www.tmz.com/2016/09/12/tupac-estate-lyrics-auction-block-sale