Judas Priest have reached a settlement in a multi-million dollar lawsuit brought by singer Rob Halford’s former manager, John Baxter.
Law 360 reports U.S. District Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel granted the parties’ joint motion for dismissal on Thursday after they said they’d reached a settlement.
The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
As previously reported by Rolling Stone in November 2011, Baxter filed a lawsuit against Halford and other members of the band and its management team, alleging fraud, breach of contract and intentional interference with contractual relations – and asking for around $50 million in damages.
Baxter, who had been Halford's personal manager since 1982 until he was fired in August 2011, claims he discovered Halford owes him millions of dollars for contract breaches, including failure to pay commissions, salary and expenses dating back to 1992. He alleged that Halford actively misled him by saying that he was simply unable to fulfill his financial obligations to his manager, promising that he would pay Baxter when he was able.
Baxter's attorney, Barry K. Rothman, told Rolling Stone that the termination was unjust and that the defendants have ulterior motives, referring to the announcement of the Judas Priest farewell tour in December of 2010. "It was wrongful termination because there's no basis to have terminated. They have their own agenda," says Rothman. "Baxter has been managing [Halford] for decades. Judas Priest was coming to an end and the Judas Priest people wanted to engage Halford in his solo endeavor and to continue to have a relationship with him which was not possible with Baxter in the middle. There's a whole reason why this all of the sudden abruptly came to an end."
Judas Priest are currently working on the follow-up to 2008's "Nostradamus."
"The writing process is complete," Halford told Billboard last month. "Now it's the painstaking work of making sure that you get every single note, every single nuance of the vocal, every tiny aspect...right. We're still tracking (instruments). It's just a very laborious but enjoyable part of making the record."
Priest is producing the album itself at the moment, but Halford notes that "there's always a possibility somebody might come in to overview some of the things we're doing."
See also:
Judas Priest: New album update
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