Kanye West ordered to pay $140K following Malibu mansion trial

Kanye West has been ordered to pay $140,000 (£104,415) after a handyman sued him over unpaid work for renovations at his Malibu mansion.

Tony Saxon, who is an ex-employee of the rapper, took legal action against him in 2023, and claimed that he was owed $1million (£800,000) in unpaid wages and loss of earnings after working as a project manager, full-time security, and live-in caretaker at the mansion.

He also sued for medical expenses after saying he injured his neck and back on the job.

Saxon claimed West agreed to pay him $20,000 (£14,916) per week but only gave him one $20,000 payment and one other payment of $100,000 (£74,582) for construction costs.

Saxon testified to the court that West said he could not leave the property and, on one occasion, woke him up at 3am local time to ask why he wasn’t working.

Kanye West has lost a lawsuit filed by Tony Saxon, the project manager who worked on his former Malibu mansion. A jury awarded Saxon $140,000 in damages, along with attorneys’ fees and court costs, though no punitive damages were granted.

Saxon alleged that Ye agreed to pay him… pic.twitter.com/1qU9bjJMdo

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The jury was shown a photo of a small mattress on a concrete floor that Saxon claimed he slept on while working at the property in Malibu, which West had purchased in 2021 for $57m (£40.27m).

During his testimony, Saxon claimed that West had asked him to install a system that would allow “his urine and faeces [to] be treated into fresh water for drinking and bathing”, according to BBC News.

He also told the court that the rapper wanted to “gut” the beach house, which was built and designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Tadao Ando, to make it off-grid and claimed those changes included removing electricity and plumbing from the home, as well as removing a staircase and replacing it with a slide.

When West took to the stand, he reportedly struggled to stay awake. His lawyer, Andrew Cherkasky, refuted that West fell asleep, telling the jury: “He wasn’t sleeping. He was bored. This is beneath him.”

Cherkasky also depicted Saxon as an unreliable witness, and said bank records showed Saxon was paid $240,000 (£179,298) during the six weeks he worked for the rapper.

West’s team also disputed Saxon’s reported injuries, sharing a video showing the handyman preforming with a band and rolling on the floor.

The court heard the rapper bought the home in 2021, but after it was stripped out and abandoned, sold it for a loss in 2023.

The trial is one of several that West is set to face in the coming months.

Earlier this week La Roux backed claims by a model who alleged West choked her and subjected her to “pornographic gagging” with his fingers on a music video set in a lawsuit.

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