{"id":974218,"date":"2019-12-31T10:34:45","date_gmt":"2019-12-31T17:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=932575"},"modified":"2019-12-31T10:34:45","modified_gmt":"2019-12-31T17:34:45","slug":"what-the-messy-legal-battle-over-lil-peeps-death-reveals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/music-news\/what-the-messy-legal-battle-over-lil-peeps-death-reveals\/","title":{"rendered":"What the Messy Legal Battle Over Lil Peep\u2019s Death Reveals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Honoring the second anniversary <\/b>of Lil Peep<\/a>\u2019s death this past November were, among other things, a documentary<\/a>, a pop-up merchandise store, and a full-length posthumous album<\/a> commemorating the young rapper\u2019s short-lived career. But looming over all those projects is a legal question about the circumstances of Peep\u2019s death \u2014 and the music industry<\/a>\u2019s role in it.<\/p>\n

Lil Peep, real name Gustav Elijah \u00c5hr, died<\/a> on a tour bus in Tucson, Arizona, in November 2017. \u00c5hr had just celebrated his 21st birthday; his particular brand of intimate, emo-studded rap was eliciting favorable critical comparisons to Kurt Cobain and propelling him up the music charts. Medical examiners ruled his death as an accidental overdose of Xanax and fentanyl<\/a>. In October 2019, \u00c5hr\u2019s mother Liza Womack filed a lawsuit<\/a> against First Access Entertainment, the management and label services company that signed the rapper to a multi-year contract in 2016, claiming that it played a part in her son\u2019s passing \u2014 specifically, by allegedly pushing him \u201conto stage after stage in city after city, plying and propping him up\u201d with illegal drugs and having him sign an \u201casymmetrical joint venture business enterprise\u201d in which the company also breached contract on multiple counts.<\/p>\n

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First Access Entertainment is now disputing all claims, including negligence, breach of contract, and wrongful death, according to documents filed on December 23rd, 2019 in Los Angeles Superior Court and reviewed by Rolling Stone<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Attorneys representing FAE Limited and FAE LLC \u2014 the U.K. and U.S. operations of the music company, respectively \u2014 state in a 44-page filing that, under the contract that the company signed with Lil Peep, FAE was never legally responsible for the rapper\u2019s well-being, citing precedents like the 2013 case<\/a> by Michael Jackson\u2019s estate against AEG Live as examples of music companies\u2019 limited scope of responsibility in their artists\u2019 personal conduct.<\/p>\n

Relationships between Lil Peep and FAE were \u201cpurely of a business nature and not the type of special relationship giving rise to an independent duty of care for one\u2019s safety and\/or well-being,\u201d FAE claims in court documents.<\/p>\n

FAE CEO Sarah Stennett has, in the past, claimed a personal interest in her client Lil Peep. \u201cI felt very protective of him from day one,\u201d Stennett told<\/a> Rolling Stone <\/i>earlier this year. But in last week\u2019s response to Womack\u2019s lawsuit, FAE repeatedly stresses that their relationship with Lil Peep was a strict \u201carms\u2019 length business arrangement,\u201d as constituted in their joint venture agreement.<\/span><\/p>\n

FAE\u2019s response points to a clause of the joint venture agreement that states that \u201ceach party is responsible for its own actions and will not be jointly and severally liable for the actions of the other Party.\u201d The company\u2019s \u201c<\/span>relationship with Mr. \u00c5hr was purely contractual and purely business,\u201d FAE\u2019s lawyers write. \u201cThe JVA does not cover personal or protection services to Mr. \u00c5hr, nor does it cover managing or controlling his personal life, including his use of drugs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But on Monday, December 30th, a week after First Access filed its response, Womack filed an amended complaint that fires back at the label\u2019s claim that its business agreement with Peep was \u201carm\u2019s length\u201d in nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

Womack\u2019s new documents say that FAE \u201cundertook the task of controlling and managing [Peep\u2019s] personal life,\u201d including his \u201ceating, drinking, sleeping, allowing for his personal hygiene, procuring driver\u2019s license\/identification cards\u2026living arrangements, buying and providing furniture, co-signing leases, securing and paying for utilities, money management, budgeting, paying taxes, identifying, paying for, transporting, and accessing health care providers and therapists, exercise, social activities, drug use, personal safety, and well-being.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAny type of contention that this was a mere business agreement flies in the face of the multitude of facts that say otherwise,\u201d Womack\u2019s lawyer, Paul Matiasic, tells <\/span>Rolling Stone.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n