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Kanye West settles with insurers over cancelled Saint Pablo Tour

By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 16 February 2018

Kanye West has reached a settlement with his Lloyd’s of London-based insurers ending a legal battle over his abandoned 2016 Saint Pablo Tour.

West prematurely ended that particular US tour following particularly erratic behaviour at a couple of his shows. He was subsequently admitted to the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital Center, with one news agency stating at the time that “the decision to hospitalise West was for his own health and safety”.

The shows were insured and West subsequently claimed on his insurance policy to recoup costs covered by the cancellations. The insurance pay out wasn’t forthcoming, so last year West sued accusing the insurers of employing delaying tactics and putting unnecessary hurdles in the way, all in a bid to avoid having to honour the insurance policies taken out for the tour.

The insurers then countersued, accusing West of not fully co-operating with their investigation into the circumstances around the ‘St Pablo’ cancellation. Legal reps for the insurers also alleged that there were “substantial irregularities in Mr West’s medical history”. West’s lawyers then called for the countersuit to be dismissed.

At the time, his legal reps stated: “The counterclaim is another manifestation of defendants’ efforts to complicate [our client’s] effort to collect on the subject policies, and to proliferate needless pleadings. The counterclaim serves no useful purpose, as it is simply a reworking of the matters raised in the [original] complaint and the defendants’ answer to it”. Therefore, “the counterclaim should be withdraw or stricken”.

Yesterday the judge overseeing the case dismissed the entire dispute, but at the request of lawyers working for both parties. Neither side has commented on this development, other than to state that the whole matter has now been resolved “amicably”.

This all means we won’t get some court-time consideration of the way insurance companies working in the entertainment business operate. Which is what West’s legal rep Howard King initially promised.

He told The Hollywood Reporter last year that the insurers had a “business model thrives on conducting unending ‘investigations’ of bona fide coverage requests, stalling interminably, running up their insured’s costs, and avoiding coverage decisions based on flimsy excuses. The artists think they they’re buying peace of mind. The insurers know they’re just selling a ticket to the courthouse”.