Yahoo Movies Britney Spears’ Lawyer Calls Out Singer’s “Stonewalling” Dad For Avoiding Deposition Over Her Fortune; Mini-Trial Set To Start Later This Summer
It may never ever end up as a lyric in a Britney Spears’ song, but poet Philip Larkin’s often quoted “they f*ck you up, your mum and dad” line has a particular poignancy for the “Toxic” singer right now – at least figuratively.
Over seven months after the younger Spears’ past conservatorship welding father was first supposed to sit down for a deposition about the true state of the performer’s fortune and how much he was paid out over the 13 years his now middle-aged offspring was under his legal thumb, Jamie Spears is “running and hiding,” according to a filing today in LA Superior Court.
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“Mr. Spears can run, but he cannot forever hide from his legal and fiduciary obligations,” exclaims the 21-page Motion to compel from Britney Spears’ attorney Matthew Rosengart (read it here).
“His stonewalling and obfuscation must not stop the truth from coming to light; it has only required that the parties expend unnecessary resources in a protracted battle to obtain his compliance,” the fiery filing continues. “But, after using his daughter’s money for more than 13 years to fund his legal fees and expenses, for the first time, Mr. Spears will now have to pay his own legal fees.”
Slamming Jamie Spears’ alleged “demonstrably false claims” of wanting to do right by his daughter and running a “corrupted and conflicted conservatorship” from which he supposedly paid himself “$6-plus million,” the motion says that “Mr. Spears failed to appear for depositions that were noticed for October 20, 2021, November 10, 2021, and April 6, 2022.”
The document in the docket from Britney Spears’ legal team comes as a min-trial of sorts is set to start on Jul 27 in the Spears’ civil war. That probe seeks to decide on the odious matter of whether Jamie Spears spied on his daughter in her bedroom and elsewhere, as the New York Times has reported. The proceedings will also examine if the elder Spears plundered the one-time Princess of Pop’s $60 million fortune directly and in payouts to lawyers, PR firms and others.
Part of the elder Spears’ problem with giving his deposition is location, location, location says Rosengart. Yet, at this point, that seems a rube ruse to avoid answering the potentially hard and binding questions states the Greenberg Traurig LLP’ lawyer. “Any objection regarding the deposition’s location is now moot because although Los Angeles is the most logical and convenient location for the deposition, Ms. Spears’s counsel has already advised Mr. Spears’s counsel that he will take the deposition ‘in any city in the country,'” says today’s filing. “Still, Mr. Spears continues to run and hide.”
Having untangled the “…Baby One More Time” vocalist from the chains of her 2008 imposed conservatorship last November after just a few months on the job, Rosengart has proved a bit of a mad dog when it comes to the sins of the father. As he has over the past year, the attorney today refused to unlock his bite on the elder Spears, a man Britney Spears herself has called “abusive”:
Because it is impossible to sum up in one paragraph, or even in a full motion, the myriad reasons Mr. Spears can no longer avoid answering for his deeds, we conclude simply with this: since childhood and certainly over the past decade, Britney Spears has been forced to live under her father’s thumb, even as she gave him an identity and supported him financially; yet he has never been required to answer for his conduct, including his gross, self-interested misuse of his fiduciary position. For Mr. Spears to contend that he will answer for his actions if (and only if) his daughter’s personal, private life is further exposed demonstrates just how misguided he is as a fiduciary and as a father. Enough is enough. Britney Spears will tolerate it no longer, and with respect, neither should this Court.
Britney Spears and Rosengart are requesting a July 13 hearing on their motion in Judge Brenda Penny’s DTLA courtroom.
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