A construction manager’s $140,000 trial verdict against Ye (formerly Kanye West) has now been multiplied by two.
A jury awarded the verdict in March after finding Ye responsible for on-the-job injuries suffered by Tony Saxon while he was renovating the rapper’s Malibu mansion back in 2021. Judge Brock T. Hammond tacked on another $181,000 for legal fees and costs in a Tuesday (Oct. 13) order, obtained by Billboard, bringing the total award to $321,000.
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This amount is still significantly less than what Saxon initially asked for: $1.7 million in damages from the jury, $1.2 million in attorneys’ fees and another $300,000 in costs.
One of Saxon’s lawyers, Ron Zambrano, told Billboard on Wednesday (Oct. 14), “I respect Judge Hammond’s openness to consider my argument” for higher fees. “Though, I believe the value of what we brought to get Mr. Saxon his verdict is above where the judge ultimately landed,” added Zambrano.
Ye’s spokesperson, Milo Yiannopoulos, responded to Billboard with a statement taking aim at Zambrano’s co-counsel, Neama Rahmani: “This ruling would be a catastrophe for any contingency-based bottom feeder, but it will be especially, devastatingly, and, dare I say it, fittingly humiliating for Mr. Rahmani.”
Saxon filed suit in 2023 alleging he’d injured his back while working around the clock to fulfill Ye’s dream of gutting his beachside mansion, which had been designed by renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando, and turning it into an open concept “bunker.”
Ye disputed Saxon’s claims, saying he was an “overpaid and underqualified” unlicensed contractor who was to blame for destroying the value of the house (Ye ultimately sold the property for $21 million, a massive loss given the $57 million purchase price). When the case went to trial, Los Angeles jurors ultimately held Ye liable for failing to pay workers’ compensation but rejected Saxon’s additional claims for wrongful termination and underpaid wages.
Meanwhile, Ye has countersued Saxon for allegedly interfering with the sale of the Malibu home by taking out an improper lien on the property and “launching an aggressive publicity campaign designed to pressure Ye, chill prospective transactions and extract payment on disputed claims.” The countersuit is still pending.
The Saxon case is just one of many civil lawsuits that have been filed against Ye by disgruntled former employees in recent years. These workers have alleged various instances of discrimination and poor working conditions at Ye’s web of companies, including the Yeezy fashion line and the now-shuttered private school Donda Academy.
Some of these cases have settled, but others are still ongoing. Two more are currently set to go to trial in February.