Kanye West is rejecting the jury’s verdict in his Malibu mansion trial, filing a motion on March 13 asking a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to grant a new trial or overturn the decision outright.
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, unpaid and wrongfully fired while working at West’s $57 million Malibu home.
Saxon had initially sought $1.7 million in compensatory damages, but the jury awarded him $140,000 with no additional punitive damages, a sum based solely on his injury claims, as both sides previously confirmed.
West’s new motion argues that the award should not stand, maintaining that Saxon presented no admissible medical bills, no medical records establishing injuries, and no credible expert testimony to support his claims.
“This case came to the jury without a single admissible medical bill, without any medical records establishing injuries, and without expert testimony based on any reliable causation or assessment methodology,” the filing states.
“However, the jury awarded the plaintiff $100,000 for economic damages, $50,000 for past economic losses, and $50,000 for future economic losses. That award cannot be sustained.”
The motion goes further, arguing that even if damages were justified, Saxon, described as an unlicensed contractor, would be legally prohibited from collecting them under California’s contractor licensing statutes.
“At a minimum, the Court should order a new trial limited to compensation for damages,” the document adds.
Saxon’s attorney, Ronald Zambrano, is unmoved.
he said PEOPLE The motion amounts to an attempt to re-litigate an issue that the court had already rejected before the trial even began.
“We have great confidence that the judge will make the same decisions and leave the jury’s verdict as it is,” he said.
Saxon’s original civil lawsuit, first filed in September 2023, alleged that he was hired as a project manager for the property in September 2021, hired to work as full-time security and live-in caretaker for $20,000 a week.
He claimed he received only one such payment and was forced to sleep in makeshift conditions on the property, using his coat as bedding on the floor while West allegedly ignored his complaints.
