Katherine Jackson faces off with executors to acquire more information about son’s estate.
By Gil Kaufman

Katherine Jackson

Photo: Aaron Lambert/ Getty Images

The battle over Michael Jackson’s fortune will begin in earnest in a Los Angeles courtroom on Monday (August 3), when the singer’s mother, Katherine Jackson, will ask a judge to give her more control over the late pop star’s assets.

According to CNN, dozens of lawyers are expected to crowd into Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff’s courtroom as Jackson faces off with the two men who were named as executors of her son’s will, longtime attorney John Branca and former music industry executive John McClain. Beckloff is also expected to finalize the custody agreement between Katherine Jackson and Debbie Rowe, the mother of Michael’s two eldest children, giving Katherine permanent guardianship of Prince Michael and Paris Michael, as well as youngest son Prince Michael II.

The more contentious issue will be control of the estate. Katherine Jackson’s lawyers filed a petition last week in which they accuse McClain and Branca of “keeping her [Katherine Jackson] in the dark” about the deals they are making on behalf of the estate, reportedly worth up to 0 million.

Attorney L. Londell McMillan explained in a statement released last week that Jackson was simply seeking more information about what the men are planning for the estate and that she was forced to make a legal request for discovery of business documents because they had not agreed to appoint her as co-executor of the estate. McMillan has also raised questions about what he called a “suspicious circle of relationships” involving Branca and McClain.

Howard Weitzman, one of the lawyers for the two music business veterans, countered that they have provided “timely information to Mrs. Jackson’s counsel regarding potential business opportunities for the Estate. … Any inference that we have not been forthcoming in providing information to Katherine Jackson’s attorneys is not accurate.”

Branca and McClain were given temporary control of the estate by Beckloff following the singer’s death on June 25, as they were named the executors of his estate in his will. At Monday’s hearing, Katherine Jackson is asking that Beckloff order the men to answer questions under oath about their business agreements to determine if they are “fit and able” to run the estate, CNN reported.

Jackson’s lawyers will have to tread lightly in challenging the fitness of the men to administer the estate while not actually contesting the late singer’s will. While they have asked Beckloff to rule on possibly removing Branca and McClain as administrators, they have also asked him to rule on whether that request would trigger a no-contest clause in Michael’s will, which would cause his mother to lose her 40 percent share of the estate.

One of the major sticking points is Branca’s refusal to let the late singer’s mother see his contract with AEG Live, the company that was producing his planned 50-date London residency at the O2 Arena. Branca has countered that he would let Jackson see the documents if she agreed to keep them confidential, which the contracts require.

Michael Jackson’s 2002 will placed all his assets — which McMillan said on Thursday could be worth up to billion — into a family trust benefiting his mother and three children as well as some unnamed children’s charities.

In addition to considering who will ultimately control the estate, Beckloff is expected to hear arguments for an allowance for Katherine Jackson, 79, to care for her grandchildren.

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