Kanye West is pushing back against the jury’s verdict in his Malibu mansion trial, filing a motion on March 13 asking a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to either grant a new trial or overturn the ruling.
The Grammy-winning rapper, 48, who now goes by Ye, was ordered to pay more than $100,000 in damages after a two-week trial in which former worker Tony Saxon alleged he was injured on the job, left unpaid and wrongfully terminated while working on West’s $57 million Malibu home.
Saxon had initially sought $1.7 million in damages, but the jury awarded him $140,000 without additional punitive damages, an amount based solely on his injury claims, which both parties previously confirmed.
West’s new motion claims the award should not stand, arguing that Saxon presented no admissible medical bills, no medical records establishing injury and no credible expert testimony to support his claims.
“This case went to the jury without a single admissible medical bill, without any medical records establishing injury, and without expert testimony based on any reliable causation or valuation method,” the suit states.
“Nonetheless, the jury awarded plaintiff $100,000 in economic damages, $50,000 for past economic loss, and $50,000 for future economic loss. That award cannot stand.”
The motion goes further, arguing that even if damages were warranted, Saxon, described as an unlicensed contractor, would be legally barred from collecting them under California contractor licensing laws.
“At a minimum, the court should order a new trial limited to damages,” the suit adds.
Saxon’s lawyer Ronald Zambrano is unfazed.
He told PEOPLE the motion amounts to an attempt to reopen an issue that the court had already rejected before the trial even began.
“We have strong confidence that the judge will make the same decisions and leave the jury’s verdict as is,” he said.
Saxon’s original civil complaint, which was first filed in September 2023, alleged that he was hired as a project manager for the property in September 2021, hired as a full-time security guard and caretaker at $20,000 a week.
He claimed he only received one of those payments and was forced to sleep in makeshift conditions on the property, using his coat as bedding on the ground, while West allegedly ignored his complaints.
