Jurors Wednesday awarded $140,000 to a handyman who alleged his client was not fully compensated for work overseeing a renovation project at the Malibu mansion of rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.
Plaintiff Tony Saxon maintains in his Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that Ye, 48, agreed to pay him $20,000 per week under a 2021 deal, but only turned over one $20,000 payment and $100,000 for constructions costs. The jury buzzed with a verdict just after 4 p.m. Tuesday and Judge Brock Hammond sent the panel home due to the late hour.
The verdict was read mid-morning on Wednesday. Saxon’s attorneys had asked for $1.7 million.
In testimony Friday, Ye said he didn’t know if he was the CEO of one of his companies, Yeezy Construction.
“I’m not sure,” or something similar was his frequent reply to questions from Saxon’s lead lawyer, Ronald Zambrano.
However, Ye appeared to go out of his way to disparage Saxon by saying he smelled bad.
In his lawsuit, Saxon maintains he was forced to sleep on the mansion floor while acting as a security guard and fired in November 2021 for not complying with Ye’s “dangerous requests” that could cause the plaintiff to be injured.
Saxon maintains he often complained to Ye about various dangers during the remodeling. Saxon alleges that workers unsafely demolished parts of the house with no safety equipment, yet Ye took no action addressing the complaints.
The day Ye fired Saxon, the singer told him, “If you don’t do what I say, you’re not going to work for me, I’m not gonna be your friend anymore and you’ll just see me on TV,” the suit filed in September 2023 states.
When Saxon replied, “I don’t watch TV,” Ye said, “Leave,” the suit states.
In October, Hammond ruled that Ye should pay Saxon $3,320 in sanctions. An attorney for the plaintiff stated in his court papers that the rapper failed to abide by code requirements by delaying in serving verified responses to Saxon’s interrogatories posed to him in 2023.
Interrogatories are sets of written questions. A verified response is a formal, written answer to a legal request, such as a court document or discovery request, that is signed under oath to confirm that the information is true and accurate.