.jpeg?w=1024&resize=1024,1024&ssl=1 "Rahane Backs Struggling Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Calls for Patience Amid Comeback Bid")
Paris Jackson has reignited her feud with the estate’s executor, accusing John Branca of “persistent incompetence” and urging a judge to reject his nearly $110 million fee request for work performed during 2023‑2024.
In a motion filed Friday and obtained by Rolling Stone, Michael Jackson’s only daughter says Branca missed his own self‑selected Sept. 15 deadline to submit complete financial accountings for 2023 and 2024, delivering documents that were either incomplete or “nothing more than a placeholder.” She contends Branca sought $109,219,648 in combined compensation for himself, his lawyers, and the late co‑executor John McClain.
“It is unclear how an executor could calculate and distribute such an amount with any confidence and yet be unable to file complete and accurate accountings years later,” her 12‑page motion states. “Paris respectfully submits that the gap between the executor’s level of compensation and his persistent incompetence is intolerable.”
Calling the fee request “particularly offensive” in light of the allegedly “delinquent” financial accountings, Paris is asking the retired judge overseeing the estate to reduce Branca’s compensation from 15 % to 10 % of the estate’s gross entertainment‑related income, retroactively to 2003 and maintained until complete accountings through 2006 are submitted.
“It is an understatement to say that this motion is completely without merit,” a spokesperson for the Branca‑led estate said in a statement shared with Rolling Stone. “Paris’s attorneys have moved for a reduction in executor compensation, when in fact the executors waived that from the estate’s beginning, and have never taken any executor compensation. They are paid a separate, court‑ordered management fee for operating the hugely successful Michael Jackson business.”
Michael Jackson died in 2009 at age 50 from an accidental propofol overdose at his Los Angeles mansion. Branca quickly took charge, and his legal team has long credited him with transforming the estate from over $500 million in debt into an enterprise valued at roughly $2 billion.
Paris’s latest filing follows a recent ruling in which she succeeded in forcing three lawyers who worked for her father’s estate to return $625,000 in bonuses authorized by Branca. In an April 29 decision, retired judge Mitchell Beckloff found that the estate had failed to demonstrate the payments were “just and reasonable based on the information provided.”
“In fact, on the evidence presented, the bonus amounts paid appear arbitrary — what Mr. Branca determined was appropriate,” Beckloff wrote. “While Mr. Branca may, in fact, know better than anyone about the value of legal fees, there must be some specific and detailed factual basis for an order finding fees are just and reasonable.”
Paris, 28, is a beneficiary of her father’s estate alongside her brothers Prince, 29, and Bigi, 24. In other recent court filings, her attorneys noted that the litigation is painful for her and distracts from her own life and career.
