According to Brian Panish, who represents Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, and his three children, Paris, Prince Michael, and Blanket, AEG Live pushed Michael Jackson to meet the demands of his never-
realized concert tour and hired Dr. Conrad Murray to make sure he was ready, despite the singer's known history of drug dependency.
"They chose to run the risk and make a huge profit,'' lawyer Brian Panish said in closing arguments of the trial of Katherine Jackson's negligent-hiring lawsuit against AEG Live. "But they lost and they are responsible.''
Panish said Jackson had earnings potential of up to $1.2 billion if he lived to perform the "This Is It" concerts in London, along with subsequent performances worldwide, a Las Vegas show and a movie deal.
According to Panish, AEG Live had numerous warning signs that Jackson might not be physically capable of a 50-concert tour, but the company moved forward anyway.
"AEG wanted the king of pop in their arena in London. They wanted so badly that despite these comments they made about Michael Jackson and the tabloids and everything, they wanted him so badly that they would do whatever it took to get him onstage, and they told that to Doctor Murray. They told Doctor Murray, we want you to have everything you can have, they knew exactly what he offered. An unlimited supply of prescription medications during the time of the pain, stress, and anxiety to get Michael Jackson on stage. They knew that. They knew what they were getting. Now they want to come in and deny it," says Panish.
He recommended that jurors allocate the total damage award at 30 percent each to the singer's three children and 10 percent to his mother, before showing a video of Jackson at various stages of his career,
performing a montage of hits as both a child and and adult.
AEG Live maintains the company could not have fired Murray, but the evidence shows otherwise, Panish said.
The 83-year-old Jackson family matriarch sued in September 2010 on behalf of herself and her son's three children, claiming that the company hired Murray to be Jackson's personal physician.
Jackson died at age 50 on June 29, 2009, of acute propofol intoxication at a rented Holmby Hills estate. Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for administering the powerful anesthetic to the singer. Murray was sentenced in November 2011 to four years in the Los Angeles County men's jail.
