TED NUGENT Festival Lawsuit Headed To Trial

January 26, 2005

John S. Hausman of the Muskegon Chronicle is reporting that Ted Nugent's lawsuit against Muskegon Summer Celebration for canceling his scheduled June 2003 concert will go to trial, barring a settlement between the parties.

Muskegon County Circuit Judge Timothy G. Hicks on Tuesday rejected Summer Celebration's "motion for summary disposition" asking the judge to throw out Nugent's main claim — breach of contract.

Hicks' ruling makes it near-certain the self-styled "Motor City Madman" will appear in Muskegon, at least for a pretrial settlement conference, if not an actual trial.

Settlement conferences typically require the parties to a lawsuit to be physically present, along with the lawyers and the judge. Hicks earlier refused to let Nugent participate by telephone — unless the rocker agreed to limit his damage request to $250,000, a limit Nugent's lawyer declined to accept. The conference had been scheduled for March 11, but it will be rescheduled because Nugent was to be at a concert out of state that day.

In a written opinion dated Tuesday, Hicks rejected defense arguments that Nugent's breach-of-contract claim is so baseless that it shouldn't proceed to trial. However, the judge noted that he was not expressing an opinion about which side should win the case.

"Motions such as this (for summary disposition) are, in a general sense, a screen to filter out lawsuits with fatal flaws of one kind or another," Hicks wrote. "Plaintiff's claim survives this test, but these decisions do not necessarily portend who ultimately prevails."

Nugent in 2003 sued Muskegon's summer festival and its leading officials for canceling the concert after a controversy arose over news reports about racial remarks Nugent allegedly made in a Denver radio interview May 5, 2003. The case started in federal court, was refiled later in state court in Nugent's own Jackson County, then landed in Muskegon County last August after a Jackson judge ordered it moved.

Nugent's lawsuit claims Summer Celebration canceled his concert May 16, 2003, "without any notice, or contractual justification." The lawsuit accuses the festival of breach of contract; economically damaging Nugent by disrupting his planned 2003 concert tour season; "unfair competition" by allegedly continuing to promote Nugent's concert on Summer Celebration's Web site after the cancellation; and "unjust enrichment" — profiting from wrongful acts. Read more.

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).