UMG Boss Lucian Grainge Wants Court To Dismiss Him From Lil Rod's Diddy Lawsuit

BYGabriel Bras Nevares1067 Views
Link Copied to Clipboard!
Billboard Power 100 Event - Inside
Adam Gardner and Lucian Grainge at the Billboard Power 100 Event held at NeueHouse Hollywood on January 31, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty Images)
The music industry magnate, as well as the various companies involved, had previously expressed similar desires regarding this suit.

The lawsuit against Diddy from Rodney "Lil Rod" Jones, the producer accusing him of sexual assault and sex trafficking, doesn't just include allegations against the Bad Boy mogul. Moreover, two big record companies appeared as defendants in this suit due to alleged liability reasons: Motown and Universal Music Group (UMG), plus a notable individual. This is the head of the latter organization, Sir Lucian Grainge, who reportedly requested the court via his legal team (which is also acting on behalf of these companies) for dismissal from the case altogether. Attorneys for all three parties, referred to as "the UMG Defendants," reportedly filed a motion for this dismissal on Wednesday (April 24) and asked a New York judge to throw out all claims concerning them with prejudice, according to court documents reportedly obtained by journalist Meghann Cuniff.

"All of the claims against Grainge, Motown and UMG Recordings (the ‘UMG Defendants’) in the [second amended complaint] are lacking in any legally cognizable basis," lawyers supposedly argued in court docs concerning the Diddy case. "Every claim [premises] on the untenable strict liability theory that when one enters into a commercial contract, the payor under that contract becomes liable for anything that the recipient of payment does with the payment.

Diddy At Invest Fest 2023

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - AUGUST 26: Sean "Diddy" Combs attends Day 1 of 2023 Invest Fest at Georgia World Congress Center on August 26, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images)

"There is no law underpinning such theory and the baseless ‘general business partnership’ allegation in the [second amended complaint] provides no support," the legal team reportedly continued in their argument in dismissal from the Diddy case. "The claims against the UMG Defendants are entirely bereft of legal merit and should be dismissed with prejudice.” Lil Rod's lawsuit claims that Lucian Grainge helped Sean Combs engage in his crimes, which Grainge's attorneys allegedly denied outright. "Plaintiff and his counsel (Blackburn) have blown up a $50,000 claim for underpayment for production services into criminal accusations against Sean Combs and his associates,” they reportedly expressed.

Not content to pursue Combs alone, without any factual or legal basis, Plaintiff and his counsel (Blackburn) have also improperly accused Grainge, UMG Recordings and Motown (collectively, the UMG Defendants) of furthering, participating in, and helping to conceal the alleged conduct of Combs and his associates based on a knowingly false ‘general business partnership’ allegation coupled with the fabrication of a non-existent duty to supervise and control how Combs spent his own money,” they concluded. Regardless, for more news and the latest updates on the Diddy case, log back into HNHH.

About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a staff writer for HotNewHipHop. He joined HNHH while completing his B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication at The George Washington University in the summer of 2022. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Gabriel treasures the crossover between his native reggaetón and hip-hop news coverage, such as his review for Bad Bunny’s hometown concert in 2024. But more specifically, he digs for the deeper side of hip-hop conversations, whether that’s the “death” of the genre in 2023, the lyrical and parasocial intricacies of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, or the many moving parts of the Young Thug and YSL RICO case. Beyond engaging and breaking news coverage, Gabriel makes the most out of his concert obsessions, reviewing and recapping festivals like Rolling Loud Miami and Camp Flog Gnaw. He’s also developed a strong editorial voice through album reviews, think-pieces, and interviews with some of the genre’s brightest upstarts and most enduring obscured gems like Homeboy Sandman, Bktherula, Bas, and Devin Malik.
...