02 September 2015
Newsdesk
Jay Z doesn’t want his wealth to be revealed in court.
The 45-year-old singer, who is estimated to have a net worth of around $550 million, is set to go to court over claims that his track Big Pimpin’ lifted sounds from an Egyptian composition.
But ahead of the case going to trial, Jay’s legal team have requested that the judge should keep details of his monetary value clear from the case.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the singer’s attorney Andrew Bart said that revealing Jay’s net worth may "bias the jury" and "artificially inflate the size of a potential damages award."
However, lawyers for Osama Ahmed Fahmy – the nephew of the composer of the Egyptian track – argued that the singer’s financial status is most definitely relevant to the case.
In the documents, according to the outlet, Osama’s lawyers wrote: "For example, compare two hypothetical infringers of a plaintiff’s copyright in a film. One is a peasant living in a remote area of Russia. The other is a billion-dollar film studio. A reasonable juror may find that, because of the peasant’s 'financial condition,' the limited steps he took to ensure he was not infringing were reasonable, whereas the same steps taken by the film studio were consistent with a finding of recklessness or willful blindness. The infringers’ respective 'financial conditions' would be highly relevant to whether they exercised due care in ensuring they were not infringing upon the plaintiff’s copyright."
Jay has also asked for any details of his criminal past to be banned from the trial.
The father-of-one took a misdemeanour assault plea after allegedly stabbing a rival record producer back in 1999.
It remains to be seen whether or not U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder will allow Jay’s wealth to be revealed in court.
The first hearing is set for September 16th.
