Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, is appealing a jury’s $140,000 award to handyman Tony Saxon, who accused him of underpaying him for renovation work at his Malibu mansion.
Ye maintains Saxon only performed demolition work and was paid $240,000.
Saxon’s lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, claimed the pair had a 2021 agreement for $20,000 per week but that he received only one payment and an additional $100,000 for construction costs. Judge Brock Hammond upheld the March 11 verdict.
On Monday, Ye’s lawyers filed his notice of appeal for a three-justice panel. Ye also sued on January 8, targeting Saxon, his attorney and the firm.
The lawsuit dates back to Saxon’s involvement in renovating Ye’s $57 million Malibu beachfront mansion. Saxon sued Ye, alleging wrongful termination, unpaid wages and a personal injury he says occurred while working on the project.
The singer alleges they wrongfully filed a $1.8 million lien on his Malibu property, falsely claiming work beyond demolition. He is asking that the lien be declared void and he is also seeking $2.27 million in damages.
“The recorded lien was a fabrication and the defendants who prepared it verified it and stood behind it knew as much,” Ye’s suit states.
Meanwhile, Saxon’s lawyers previously filed court papers with Hammond in advance of a scheduled Oct. 7 hearing asking that the plaintiff be granted $1.23 million in attorneys’ fees, citing the work of three attorneys and a paralegal.
The law involved in Saxon’s case included a “complex and interwoven mix of rights” under the Federal Employment and Housing Act and the Labor Code, according to Saxon’s attorneys’ pleadings.
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In his lawsuit filed in September 2023, Saxon maintained he was forced to sleep on the mansion floor while acting as a security guard and fired in November 2021 for not complying with Ye’s “dangerous requests” that could cause the plaintiff to be injured.
Saxon said he often complained to Ye about various dangers during the remodeling.
