Rapper Pitbull has been sued for $1 million by former manager Charles Chavez.
On August 2, Chavez, through his company Latium Entertainment, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking over $1 million in compensation from Pitbull, alleging breach of oral agreement and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, reports billboard.com.
It alleges that when Chavez and Armando Perez, better known as Pitbull, began working together in March 2007, they entered into an “oral agreement at that time”, stating Latium would receive 10 per cent of Pitbull’s revenues from “all business derived from activities on which Chavez worked, regardless of when those revenues were received”. Activities included recordings, publishing and performances. The 10 per cent, alleges the suit, was always paid while Chavez managed Pitbull.
But after Chavez stopped managing Pitbull in March 2015 the tap was turned off, says the suit, even when pertaining to projects Chavez had worked on prior. These include seven albums dating back to 2007’s “The Boatlift” and ending with 2014’s “Globalization”. In those, Chavez is credited both as Pitbull’s manager and also executive producer. The suit estimates that the amount owed to Latium in both publishing and recording monies exceeds $1 million.
The suit makes no mention of either an actual written contract or what’s known as a “sunset clause”, which prevents the artiste from owing money long after a contract has expired or paying double commission. Sunset clauses typically put a date in which the artist is no longer obliged to pay commission, or phase out that commission over time.
